Surveys taken as voters left the polls yesterday showed that Carter had split the union vote with the Republican, a 17-per-cent drop in the incumbent's labor support since 1976, and that Reagan had beaten the President significantly among male voters.

White Protestants, southern whites and even Catholics--a traditionally Democratic bloc--backed Reagan's bid, with only Black and Hispanic voters continuing to back the president in numbers comparable to four years ago. Women voters backed the two candidates evenly.

The surveys showed that those who had made up their minds on the election during the last week split about evenly between Carter and Reagan. Those who focused on the issue of the American hostages in Iran tended to favor Carter, while Reagan picked up more support from those who thought the debate was more important.

Reagan fared well among those voters who said they favored a strong U.S. posture towards the Soviet Union and those who thought inflation was the most important domestic issues.

Reagan won in economically depressed areas in the nation's industrial heartland, taking Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania--states which were critical Carter's electoral strategy.

The once near-solid South cracked first for Carter as Reagan turned around the 1976 results in virtually every state.

Reagan ran strongly even in traditional Democratic strongholds like southern Florida and in areas the Republicans had captured in 1976--Virginia, for example--he improved on Ford's showing.

As returns from the midwest began to trickle in, the president's fate was sealed.

Indiana went overwhelmingly for Reagan, not switching any electoral votes from 1976 but pointing to the incumbent's weakness even in the urban areas of Gary and Indianapolis, localities the president carried four years ago.

Analysts said the early returns from Ohio, which Carter won in 1976, assured Reagan's victory.

All of the first twelve states to report returns gave Reagan the lead; by 7:30 Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS) reporter Dan Rather was saying Carter "must be hearing the whispers of the axe," and at 8:14 p.m. the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) declared Reagan the victor, more that seven hours before it announced its final projection in the 1976 race.

As the contest moved up the East Coast towards the major urban centers of the Northeast, Reagan's momentum held; except for a narrow Democratic victory in Massachusetts, the Republican captured most of the country's older industrial centers, including surprise wins in Connecticut and New York.

Though conventional wisdom has held that heavy turnouts in the Northeast helps Democratic candidates, yesterday's record attendance at the polls seemed to benefit the Republicans, who also picked up several unexpected Senate and House victories.

The network maps showed solid Reagan blue from the Mississippi River west, as the former California governor rolled up margins even larger than Ford's across the plain states and into the Pacific Coast.

Pollsters stressed that the defeat represented a loss of faith in Carter. Only about two-thirds of the voters who supported the president in 1976 stuck with him yesterday, and exit polls showed higher levels of trust for the GOP challenger.