United States Democrat President-elect Barack Obama won the popular vote by a six-point margin of 52 to 46 per cent for vanquished Republican rival John McCain, US networks said.

Mr Obama earned 63.25 million votes nationwide and Senator McCain, 55.90 million, NBC, CBS and Fox News reported, as final vote tallies trickled in.

With record numbers of Americans casting ballots, the first African-American president-elect won more votes than any candidate in US history, and a higher percentage of the overall vote than any Democrat since Lyndon B Johnson in 1964 (61.1 per cent).

The winner of the popular vote does not always get the keys to the White House.

In the extraordinarily close 2000 presidential race, Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote but President George W Bush came out on top in the electoral college.

With results given in 48 states and the District of Columbia, Mr Obama had secured 349 electoral college votes compared with 163 for Senator McCain. Missouri and North Carolina remained too close to call.

States are apportioned electoral votes according to the size of their population, and in most of the 50 states the winner of a state's popular vote gets all its electoral ones.

- AFP

  © 2008 Australian Broadcasting Corporation