RECORD TURNOUT

Sen. Barack Obama surged into the lead Tuesday night in his bid to become the first black president of the United States.

Ending after almost two years of campaigning, the contest appeared to have drawn the largest number of voters of any election in American history —- as many as 130 million people.

Obama failed in his long-shot bid to win Georgia, which President Bush won 58 percent to 42 percent in 2004. But he won Pennsylvania, a state his opponent, Sen. John McCain, had banked on in his come-from-behind effort.

Tens of thousands of people gathered at Chicago’s Grant Park, where Obama and his running mate, Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, were set to hold an election night rally. Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago said of the crowd: “Everyone wants to be part of American history.”

Across the nation, Democrats were also strengthening their majorities in the House and Senate. But the Georgia Senate race between incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin was too close to call and could go to a runoff.

Almost every state, including Georgia, reported record voter turnout Tuesday after more than 31 million voters nationwide cast early ballots.

In Fulton County, elections workers predicted turnout of about 85 percent of registered voters. About 77 percent of Fulton voters cast ballots in 2004, and there were 100,000 fewer registered voters in the county then.

Exit polls and interviews of almost 10,000 voters nationwide suggested that about six in 10 women were backing Obama, and men leaned his way by a narrow margin. Just over half of whites supported McCain, giving him a slim advantage in a group that President Bush carried overwhelmingly in 2004.

While key issues such as the Iraq war played a role in the election and in the candidacies of both Obama and McCain, the economy was the chief issue on voters’ minds in the weeks leading up to the election, surveys showed. The global financial crisis, the mortgage industry collapse and the $700 billion bailout by Congress of the crippled financial industry dominated news in September and October.

The looming prospect of a troubled economy throughout next year had many Americans anxious about their jobs, their debts, their children’s future and America’s status as the world’s economic engine. Six in 10 voters surveyed by the Associated Press said the economy was their chief concern, and none of the other top issues —- energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care —- was picked by more than one in 10.

In Atlanta Journal-Constitution exit polling, Georgia voters mirrored the national findings. They were fairly divided in which candidate they picked to fix the economy, 51 percent for Obama to 48 percent for McCain.

Their choice reflected exactly how bad they thought things were. Voters who judged the economy as poor went 67 percent for Obama. But voters who judged the economy as “not good” went 63 percent for McCain.

Both Obama and McCain were considered long shots when they entered crowded races for their party’s nomination.

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois with what he himself has described as “a funny name,” went up against much better-funded and well-known opponents, including New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the former first lady. Obama initially set himself apart by his early opposition to the war in Iraq and defeated Clinton in a bruising primary contest only a few months before the Democratic convention in Denver.

McCain, of Arizona, entered a crowded GOP race as a party renegade. Several times McCain’s campaign was short of money, and he lost the campaign-opening Iowa caucus in January to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. But each time, McCain came back to win votes, delegates and eventually the Republican nomination.

The election Tuesday brought to a close the longest and most expensive presidential election in American history. The Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan group that monitors federal campaigns, predicted that the election, at a cost of $5.3 billion, will be the most expensive election in U.S. history.

The election campaign has transformed modern politicking in terms of how campaigns mobilize voters, raise money, use advertising, use the Web and register voters.

“I think we’ll be analyzing this election for years as a seminal, transformative race,” said Mark McKinnon, a senior adviser to President Bush’s campaigns in 2000 and 2004. “The year campaigns leveraged the Internet in ways never imagined. The year we went to warp speed. The year the paradigm got turned upside down and truly became bottom up instead of top down.”

Throughout metro Atlanta, anxious voters for both candidates gathered at parties, bars and homes Tuesday night to watch returns.

Patrick Bentley, 23, a senior at Morehouse University, said he was proud to have a black man so close to the White House.

“Even though a lot of us say to our children, ‘You can be anything you want to be,’ there still is a glass ceiling for African-Americans,” he said. “Seeing a black president will make me feel like I can do anything. I can tell my children they can do anything, and mean it.”

Missy Ramsey, 33, the wife of Republican state Rep. Matt Ramsey, voted in Peachtree City for McCain. Ramsey said she was not an enthusiastic McCain supporter until he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate.

“I see her as an agent of change, just like the Democrats see Obama,” she said.

Peggy Nazarowski of Cumming wasn’t expecting her preferred candidate, McCain, to win Tuesday. But she wasn’t all that disappointed that Obama appeared poised for victory.

“I wanted to go there, but I just couldn’t,” said the nail technician, watching returns at Ray’s Killer Creek in Alpharetta. She said she was troubled by Obama’s lack of experience and his alleged associations with controversial associate William Ayers and his preacher, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

But she said she is willing to give Obama another chance.

“Let’s hope he does some of the things he said he would,” Nazarowski said.

Staff writers Jim Auchmutey, April Hunt, Doug Nurse, Jennifer Brett, Marcus Garner, Christian Boone and John Perry and the Associated Press contributed to this article.