George Bush and John KerrySwindon student Alex Ogle has been in the US throughout the election campaign. Here is his report on polling day

As the polls opened early yesterday morning in central Pittsburgh, two teenage girls stood on the pavement holding the red, white and blue Kerry/Edwards banners, waving and whooping at passing cars. Six hours later they were still there. On campus, students standing in long lines waiting to vote were cautiously optimistic.

The atmosphere, on an unusually warm, sunny day, was contained excitement. The idea of 'rocking the vote', of the youth taking back the country from the Texan oil men and bible-belt conservatives, heightened the tension.

A discussion waiting in line was of the perfect song to play as you walked into the polling booth; one guy I spoke to proudly said he 'rocked out' to the extended version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic rock Freebird as he pulled the lever. "It was awesome," he said.

This was not to say the other side wasn't also feeling the heat of victory. Attending Bush's last rally in Pennsylvania early Monday morning, I stood in the middle of 12,000 screaming Republicans. The endless mantra of Four More Years interrupted the President at every pause in his speech which was, incidentally, word for word the same speech as the one I saw last week in Ohio.

The crowd's adulation for the President was only intensified by their outrage at Democratic protesters, dragged from the scene by burly Secret Service agents half way through.

The offending signs held by the demonstrators red and blue with white stars, emblazoned with the words For War Years were quickly ripped up by a nearby family unit, the young children encouraged to join in.

Nobody in the media was daring to predict a victory either way, after the debacle of early predictions in the 2000 election.

However, just in the last few days, everything had gone so well for John Kerry.

I am fully prepared to accept that I may be, metaphorically, falling on my face with my hands in my pockets, when the actual result is of a Bush victory, but from the charged atmosphere I saw yesterday I seriously believed Kerry would take the presidency.