Confusion marked much of the night as races in several Midwestern states, including Ohio and Illinois, proved too close to call.
But late results from New York, an unexpectedly difficult contest for Carter, broke the logjam and put him near the magic number. Moynihan's comfortable victory in New York was thought to have given Carter much needed help in the race in the Empire State.
For the next two hours, with the exception of Wisconsin, which some Carter aides reportedly did not count on, Carter stalled tantalizingly close to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.
But results from Hawaii and then Mississippi guaranteed Carter's ascension to the White House. Wisconsin's 11 electoral votes followed quickly in the wake of the Mississippi tally.
At press time, the former Georgia governor had won 23 states, with Ford also chalking up 23, but with the decidedly fewer number of electoral votes. Among the states Ford carried were Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey, his home state Michigan and Virginia, the only state in the South that went against the region's favorite son.
The striking regionalism in the election was made clear by Carter's inability to garner a single electoral vote in the west.
In Massachusetts Carter received 58 per cent of the vote, winning 721,388 to 485,528