Vice-President Al Gore and Governor George Bush were fighting to be the next President of the United States early this morning Irish time as results came in from the eastern and midwest states. The key state of Florida which exit polls initially gave to Mr Gore was later deemed too close to call.
Mrs Hillary Clinton easily won her Senate election in New York against the Republican contender, Mr Rick Lazio. She becomes the first First Lady to be elected to public office in American history.
Mr Gore's early boost when exit polls showed he had won the crucial state of Florida with 25 electoral college votes which Mr Bush had earlier insisted he was sure of winning. .But the Democrats euphoria ebbed later when it became clear that victory there was not sure.
A bruising defeat for Mr Bush came when the industrial state of Michigan also fell to Mr Gore.
There was good news for Mr Bush when exit polls showed he would win the state of Ohio with 21 electoral votes and Mr Gore's home state of Tennessee with 11. No Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio. But there was surprise that the result in Mr Bush's favour took so long to be announced.
Mr Bush also won in Louisiana with nine electoral votes but he was expected to win this southern state.
The apparent loss of Pennsylvania to Mr Gore was crushing for the Bush campaign which had put huge effort into winning the state. Observers said that if Mr Bush had chosen the state's popular governor, Mr Tom Ridge, as his running mate, he would have won the state.
Shortly after 3.00a.m. Irish time, Mr Bush, on the basis of exit polls and not actual counts, was ahead by 212 electoral votes to 165 for Mr Gore.
To win the election a candidate has to amass 270 electoral votes from the 50 states.
With about 10 per cent of the votes counted, Mr Bush had 53 per cent, Mr Gore 45 per cent and Green Party candidate, Mr Ralph Nader, 4 per cent.
Mr Bush, as expected, headed for early wins in Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina and his own state of Texas.
Mr Gore, as expected, recorded victories in the north-east states of Maine, Massachussets, Vermont and Connecticut. He easily won New York with its haul of 33 electoral votes and was expected to win California with its 54 electoral votes.
This was making Mr Gore's task of reaching the magic number of 270 more difficult but not yet impossible. Mr Bush's strength is concentrated in the Rocky Mountain and southern states which have smaller numbers of electoral votes but he was also hoping to win traditional Democratic states like Wisconsin, Washington and Oregon.
In the early results Mr Gore duly won Maryland and Washington DC. But the big plums were Florida and Michigan and they may have set him on the road to ultimate victory.
But political observers warned that it would be a long night. A judge ordered the polls in St Louis, Missouri to stay open three hours longer to allow the long queues of people the chance to cast their votes. Another judge later reversed this and ordered the polls to close immediately.
Missouri with 11 electoral votes was a key state given to Mr Bush in the exit polls putting Mr Bush strongly back into a race he had earlier appeared to have lost.
Mr Bush watched the early results from the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas, with his parents, wife and family.
But as the results came in, the Republican candidate decided to return to the Governor's Mansion to follow the results.
The Bush camp had shown what may be a misplaced optimism by issuing the next day's programme for the "President-elect".
The Gore headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, was delighted with the early results giving their man Florida and Michigan. Mr Gore had all along claimed he could win Florida where he hammered away at Mr Bush's plan to reform the social security system which is so important to the large numbers of retirees living in the "Sunshine State."