OLYMPIA -- A remarkable presidential election will end tonight with its lasting imprint on history assured regardless of the outcome.
More people are expected to cast ballots than in any previous contest and the results will change the perception of who can be this nation's leader by putting a black president or a female vice president in power for the first time.
While it will take time to know if the choice of Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain proves historic in transforming the nation, their battle for the job has already left its mark on the psyche and politics of Americans.
"People have really been absorbed by it. When we began this cycle no one would have predicted this outcome," Bill Carrick, a California political consultant who worked on the campaign of President Clinton, said Monday.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, called it "probably the most exciting presidential election" since those in 1960 and 1968.
"Turnout will be through the roof, and that shows the public is totally engrossed. Newspapers should plan extra-large runs on Wednesday. Practically the whole country may plan to secure keepsakes for the grandkids," Sabato said.
History is getting written on several levels and the writing is far from done.
Electing Obama will give the United States its first black president while electing McCain will give the country its first female vice president in Sarah Palin.
A record number of people will be making the decision. Various experts on turnout predict 65 percent of all eligible voters will participate, the highest since 1908. Eligible voters include people who qualify but have not registered to vote.
And this is the most expensive campaign in history, coming in at more than a combined $1 billion. Federal campaign finance records show Obama has raised $639 million and McCain $335 million.
"The attention the media and the public paid to it has made it an election of a different kind," said James Gregory, a professor of history at the University of Washington.
Electing Obama or Palin "would be unprecedented and would affirm the great opening of the American electorate," he said.
An Obama victory would mark a breakthrough for American diversity in politics in much the way John F. Kennedy's election in 1960 broke down a barrier on religion by giving the nation its first Catholic president, he said.
The historic importance of the election could prove much greater than knocking down a barrier.
"While race has been an issue of consideration for voters for a number of reasons, obviously the economic meltdown has transcended every other aspect of the campaign," Carrick said.
Analogies are drawn to the mood of voters in 1932 and 1980 when economic crises fueled election of Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Republican Ronald Reagan respectively.
"It feels like when Reagan was about to be elected. You're having a sea change in direction and attitude of the country," said Lou Cannon, a biographer of President Reagan and a former Washington Post reporter.
Cannon pointed out Obama leads in polling because voters perceive he will be better than McCain in dealing with the current problems.
People "are not voting for Obama because he is black. They are voting for Obama because we're in a time of economic calamity," said Cannon, who writes for State Net, an online source of news on state governments.
Those elections in 1932 and 1980 also transformed the conduct of politics in marked fashion.
Roosevelt forged a coalition of Democrats of the rural South and urban North to win. He then pushed his "New Deal" legislation in a period of Democratic control of government.
Reagan broadened and strengthened a conservative movement inspired by President Nixon, most notably by bringing Southern states into the GOP fold.
"We may look back at this as one of those turning points in American history when the country chooses to go in a new direction," Carrick said. "You don't know if 2008 is that kind of election yet, but it does have the potential."
David Greenberg, an associate professor of history and journalism at Rutgers University, said he didn't see a repeat of 1932 with another New Deal because the economic picture is different.
He said this vote is a "repudiation" of the past 28 years of conservatism in the political system and the last two terms of President George W. Bush.
"If you were teaching a history class, 2008 would be kind of a nice year to end a unit on because it seems like we're probably entering a new period," he said.
Bill Rorabaugh, a UW professor of U.S. history, is skeptical of overstating significance before anyone takes office.
"Whether it means it is a path-breaking election in terms of changing the dynamics of politics, we'll just have to wait and see," he said. "At this point in time there is no way of knowing how historic it will be."
