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4 to 5. Kennedy's popular plurality slid below the million mark for the first time in hours. NBC figured that Kennedy was only one electoral vote short of the 269 needed to win. It was so close that the nation could just possibly go the way Alaska went—and Alaska, with 25% of the votes counted, was 7,383 for Kennedy, 7,007 for Nixon. California vote counters struggled with map-sized paper ballots and warned that the final score might not be posted for another 24 hours. The TV pundits began to talk of 1916, when the U.S. awakened to the startling news that California had elected Woodrow Wilson.
5 to 6. When Associated Press gave Michigan to Kennedy, CBS boosted the Senator's electoral-vote total to 285, more than enough to get him into the White House. But CBS was assuming that Illinois' 27 votes would go to Kennedy, and, hour by hour, his lead there was dwindling away until it stood at a mere 46,000. If Kennedy lost Illinois, his last big chance to clinch the election was California. But even there, with half of the state still to be tallied, Kennedy was just plugging along in front by 80,000. Dawn was beginning to break over Manhattan when the experts, who earlier in the night had been blithely predicting a Kennedy landslide, were cautiously agreeing that the Senator should win—in a squeaker.
6 to 7. Throughout the land, the black banner lines on the morning editions all read: KENNEDY! At 7 o'clock, John Kennedy crossed the 30 million mark—some 750,000 votes in the lead. Kennedy had 50.71% of the popular vote, Nixon 49.29%. It was the closest election since 1888, when Democrat Grover Cleveland edged Republican Benjamin Harrison in the popular vote but lost to him in the Electoral College.
7 to 8. By light of a new day, the Kennedy drive began to creep forward again. With some 90% of the votes counted, Kennedy led Nixon by just 770,000, but he led where it counted. Illinois was in doubt, but Kennedy seemed safely ahead in key California. Finally, even the most cautious proclaimed John Fitzgerald Kennedy the President-elect.