The final results are in. Nearly after a full day of tallying, North Carolina reports that Obama has beaten McCain in a razor-tight race, according to National Public Radio's main website. The popular vote in the Tarheel State delivered a slim, but nonetheless significant, victory to the Democratic candidate, for a state that has traditionally voted predominately Republican and Conservative at the Federal level. In terms of percentages of the popular vote, NPR reports a dead-split even (50-50) between the two major presidential contenders. In actual estimated figures, these numbers run around 2,123,334 to 2,109,281 for Obama and McCain respectively, a difference of slightly more than 14,000 votes. Similar outcomes hold for two other traditionally Republican and Conservative Southern strongholds that are electorally significant in their own right: Virginia (52-47) and Florida (51-48)
