By Stephanie Woodrow

It’s over. Four years after the biggest election controversy in history, Americans have spoken out and declared they want Republican President George W. Bush to be the president for the next four years.

Even with the push from both parties to register voters, turnout results estimated slightly fewer than 60 percent of the country voted, the highest since 1968. According to CNN, 17 percent of those who voted were between the ages of 18 and 29, putting the youth vote at approximately 20 million votes.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Bush had received 274 electoral votes, while Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., had 252 votes. At this point, New Mexico and Iowa had not been called, however the results will not affect the election outcome. Bush also won the popular vote with 51 percent of the votes. Kerry received 3,582,528 fewer votes than Bush, resulting in winning 48 percent of the votes.

In addition to the race for the presidency, 34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats were up for grabs. The Senate, which has been dominated by Republicans since 1996, will continue its trend after 19 Republicans and 15 Democrats won seats. In addition to the retained 36 Republican, 29 Democrat and one Independent seats, the Senate will now consist of 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and 1 Independent.

Republicans also maintained control of the House, with a 231-200-1 balance, as of 5 p.m. Wednesday. At this time three races were still undeterminable in the Louisiana ‘s 3rd and 7th districts and in the 27th district of New York 27. The House has only been Republican since 2002.

One of the surprises of the night was current Senate minority leader, Tom Daschle, D-S.D., losing his Senate seat by 4,535 votes to Republican John Thune. It has been specualted that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will most likely replace Daschle as the Senate minority leader. Tight Senate races also occurred in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, the senators from Alaska and Kentucky had not been determined. Democrat Ken Salazarwas voted the next senator from Colorado, wedging out Republican Peter Coors by 52,445 votes. Richard Burr, R-N.C., won the state by 172,621 votes over Democrat Erskine Bowles. Oklahoma’s next senator will be Republican Tom Coburn who beat Democrat Brad Carson by 168,462 votes.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, R-NY, won by an overwhelming 71 percent of the vote. Out of New York’s 29 House seats, 19 went to Democrats, 9 went to Republicans and one was sill undetermined at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Close House races also occurred in Colorado’s 3rd district, Georgia’s 12th district, Kentucky’s 4th district and Texas’s disctrict 32nd district. John Salazar, a democrat, beat out Republican Greg Walcher in the 3rd district of Colorado by 11,415 votes. The 4th district of Kentucky was won by Geoff David and 31,462 votes, overshadowing Nick Clooney, a Democrat.. Sen. Pete Sessions, R-Tex., held onto his district by 20,847 votes and by defeating Democrat Martin Frost.

By 7 p.m., 34 electoral votes had gone to Bush and three to Kerry. Bush’s 34 votes were comprised from Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia’s votes. Vermont went to Kerry.

As of 8 p.m. Kerry had taken the electoral lead with 77 votes, from Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Illinois. Bush was up to 66 votes with Tennessee, Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia. This was also the first point when the Electoral College votes did not reflect the popular vote.

At the 9 p.m. mark, Bush regained the electoral vote lead at ­­102 votes and retained the popular vote. Bush was declared the winner of Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and West Virginia. Kerry didn’t gain any states in the hour.

Bush took a large lead during the next hour, collecting votes from Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas totaling 155 votes. Kerry’s vote count increased to 112 votes, after being declared the winner of Rhode Island and New York.

The 10 p.m. hour brought Bush up to 193 votes after winning Louisiana, Mississippi, Utah, Arkansas and Missouri. Kerry won the swing state of Pennsylvania bringing his total to 133.

Bush’s lead on Kerry decreased during the 11 p.m. hour, when California went to Kerry. Bush won Idaho brining his total to 197 and Kerry’s to 188. Bush continued his lead of the popular vote by less than 2 million votes. During this hour, it was also announced that Ralph Nader, running on the Independent ticket, had 1 percent of the popular vote.

At this point, it was clear the election would be determined by two states: Ohio and Florida. Because of the problems that occurred in the 2000 election, even when 96 percent of the Florida votes had been counted, no one announced a winner. The vote count was Bush leading by 323,293 votes, according to CNN.com

Slightly after 12 a.m., Florida was announced as a Bush state along with Arizona. It was only announced when 98 percent of the votes had been counted. This brought Bush to 234 votes, which left only 36 votes needed to win the presidency.

Montana was the next state announced, which added 3 votes to Bush. Bush then earned 12 votes when Colorado and Montana were announced. Oregon was then announced for Kerry, which brought his total to 195. Alaska brought Bush’s total 249 at approximately 1 a.m.. Maine’s fourth electoral vote along with New Hampshire was awarded to Kerry at 1:15 a.m., bringing his total to 200.

By 2 a.m., Kerry had won Washington, bringing his total to 211. CNN also announced Ohio would be too close to call. In addition to absentee ballots, Ohio has provisional ballots, which allow people who went to the wrong polling location (as long as they were in the correct county) to vote. In the case of Ohio, 71,561 provisional ballots were given out. However, these ballots are only counted 11 days after the election if they are deemed legitimate by both the Republican and Democratic election boards.

At 2:30 a.m., CNN declared Michigan’s 14 votes, Minnesota’s 10 votes and Hawaii’s four votes went to Kerry. This brought Kerry’s votes to 242. At this point it was determined that neither candidate could win until Ohio was determined. Iowa was also an influential state, but only if the three other remaining states (Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin) went to the same candidate.

Slightly before 4 a.m., Nevada was given to Bush, while Wisconsin’s 10 votes went to Kerry around 5 a.m.. Kerry’s total was 252; Bush’s total was 254. If either candidate took Iowa and New Mexico, but lost Ohio, he would lose the election.

Bush received a phone call on Wednesday at 11 a.m. from Kerry, conceding the election, after Kerry realized he had no hope of winning Ohio and decided not to request a recount of the Ohio ballots.

“[Bush and I] had a good conversation, and we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need – the desperate need for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together,” Kerry said during his concession speech Wednesday afternoon. “Today I hope that we can begin the healing.”

At 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, CNN announced Bush had received enough votes that even if every provisional ballot was a Kerry vote, they would still not be enough for Kerry to win Ohio. This brought Bush’s total to 274, and won him the election, with Iowa and New Mexico still undecided.

Mid-afternoon, Bush gave his victory speech at the White House.

“To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support and I will work to earn it,” Bush said. “I will do all I can do to deserve your trust.”

Bush will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2005.

All times and data were from CNN.com unless otherwise stated