7:30 PM WASHINGTON DC – Republican presidential candidate John McCain grabbed a narrow lead over Democrat Barack Obama in the battleground state of Indiana as the first votes trickled in this evening, and the GOP nominee held a small but decisive advantage in Kentucky, traditionally a red state.

Both CNN and the Associated Press called McCain the winner in Kentucky and Obama the winner in Vermont, based on exit polls.

Just one percentage point separated McCain from Obama in Indiana, with 4 percent of precincts counted.

Polls closed at 4 p.m. PST in Virginia, which President Bush won in 2004 but which Obama has been hungry to capture. Polls also closed then in parts of Florida, another key swing state that rewards the winner with 27 electoral votes – 10 percent of the 270 needed to win the election.

No Democrat has carried Virginia or Indiana in a presidential election since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Voters across the country swarmed to the polls today, with some people lining up before dawn to cast ballots in this groundbreaking election. Millions of Americans already voted before the polls opened.

The campaign, which gripped the nation for the past two years, will be historic no matter who wins. Obama, 47, the freshman senator from Illinois, would be the first African American elected president of the United States. And McCain, 72, the 22-year veteran senator from Arizona, would bring with him the first female vice president if he and running mate Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, are victorious.

E-mail Rachel Gordon at [email protected].