6:31 PM WASHINGTON DC

Early leads for McCain

(AFP) – The first polls in the historic U.S. elections closed in parts of Indiana and Kentucky on Tuesday with no results yet in the presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain.

Democratic White House hopeful Obama made his very last campaign swing through Indiana on Tuesday hoping to sway the traditionally red Republican state his way.

Indiana, which has not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since choosing then-president Lyndon Johnson in 1964, has 11 electoral college votes towards the 270 needed to capture the presidency.

But Obama, from neighboring Illinois, closed the gap with McCain in the late stages of the campaign and was just 1.4 points behind the Republican in a pre-election average of polls done by the non-partisan RealClearPolitics.com.