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"For the first time in American history, he wants to tax your health benefits," Obama said in September. "Apparently, Senator McCain doesn't think it's enough that your health premiums have doubled. He thinks you should have to pay taxes on them, too."

WASHINGTON — Four million to five million voters did not cast a ballot in the 2008 presidential election because they encountered registration problems or failed to receive absentee ballots, which is roughly the same number of voters who encountered such problems in the 2000 election, according to an academic study to be presented to the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday.

Pentagon officials said Tuesday that they did not know what the size of the residual force in Iraq might be, although one of Mr. Obama’s national security advisers said during the campaign that it could number 30,000 to 55,000 troops.

President-elect Barack Obama, the first major-party nominee to reject federal funding for the general election, spent $740.6 million.

Mr. Obama pulled in more than $750 million ($104 million between Oct. 15 and Nov. 4 alone) from more than 4 million contributors during his presidential run. That's the most money raised from the most people in history. The story goes that this was fueled by regular people who sent in $200 or less. Well, yes and no. According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute of the fundraising totals through August 2008, the percentage of people whose total donations to Mr. Obama aggregated to $200 or less was 26 percent. That almost matches President Bush's 25 percent in the 2004 election. But Mr. Obama relied less on donors who gave $1,000 or more (47 percent) than Mr. Bush (60 percent)

This year's total amounts to 61.6 percent of eligible voters, the highest turnout rate since 1968, when Republican Richard M. Nixon defeated Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey, said Michael P. McDonald, a political science professor at GMU. It was the third straight increase in presidential election turnout, encouraging news for those who have warned about voter apathy. Four years ago, 60.1 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.

Whatever the appropriate label, substantial majorities of the voters of 2008 want the war in Iraq to end as soon as possible. Large majorities favor affordable health insurance for everyone, a fairer distribution of wealth and income, and higher taxes on the rich. They want to preserve traditional Social Security. They want more effective government regulation of the financial sector. On social issues, the country that elected Obama is tolerant of homosexuality and legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, less so of same-sex marriage. A post-election survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a Democratic polling firm, showed that 51 percent said "the government should do more to solve problems."

Our study found that 23 of 25 Democratic House candidates who won seats previously held by Republicans and all seven Democrats who won Republican Senate seats favored the progressive position on at least five of the six issues. In short, voters didn't just elect Democrats, they elected progressive Democrats

As of yesterday, more than 127.1 million votes had been recorded in unofficial state tallies, many of which did not include some uncounted mail-in or provisional ballots, a Globe review of the websites of state election agencies showed. When the official counts are in, Gans said, the final tally may approach 129 million, which would be almost 62 percent of eligible voters, up from 60.6 percent four years ago but below the 1964 turnout rate of 64 percent of eligible voters under Gans's formula.

Investigators have yet to determine why the church was targeted, but they say the timing, just hours after Barack Obama broke the highest racial barrier in politics, raised suspicions that it was a hate crime. It touched off a raw fear that has lurked just below the surface in many black communities, that Obama's breakthrough success would trigger a backlash against blacks.