Most women voted for Mr Gore, most whites for Mr Bush. And while the poor saw their future tied up with the former's fate, a clear majority of those earning over $100,000 a year voted Republican.
Detailed exit polls conducted nationally and at state level give a clear map of a sharply divided US whose social and attitude indicators are good markers for voting intentions.
Indeed, the 54-43 gap opened between women Gore and Bush voters is the most pronounced in US electoral history. And with 90 per cent of blacks and 62 per cent of Hispanics voting for Mr Gore and 54 per cent of whites, the racial gulf in US society is clearly as deep as ever; 70 per cent of gays backed the Democratic candidate.
While Mr Gore did marginally better than his rival in the age groups under 29 and over 60, the differences are much less significant than the differing levels of voting participation in such groups. Cross-party voting was limited, with only 11 per cent of Democrats voting for Mr Bush and 8 per cent of Republicans backing Mr Gore.
Trade unionists, now only 16 per cent of the population, voted 62-34 in favour of Mr Gore, while the country's one in two gun owners did precisely the opposite. However, 60 per cent of voters say they are in favour of stricter gun controls.
Religion was a significant indicator among the one-in-two who say they are Protestants, with 56 per cent backing Mr Bush, while those who consider themselves part of the Christian conservative movement - 14 per cent of the national population - backed him four to one. Three out of five of the 42 per cent who attend a religious service at least once a week were in the Bush camp.
But 50 per cent of Catholics and 79 per cent of Jews supported Mr Gore, reflecting in the former case a significant success on the part of Republicans in eroding a traditionally Democratic constituency. Abortion is clearly a major influence, with 69 per cent of Bush supporters saying they think it should be illegal in most cases.
When asked what issues they thought were the most important, only 12 per cent said world affairs, but surprisingly Mr Bush's supporters came out ahead among these, 54-40. Reflecting the Gore campaign priorities, 60 per cent of those who regarded the economy as the priority voted with him. And of the 14 per cent who saw tax cuts as the main issue, 80 per cent were Bush supporters.
The two men emerged in the eyes of their own supporters as a likeable strong leader in Mr Bush's case, and an experienced leader who understands complexity in Mr Gore's. Asked if the priority of a president should be governing or moral leadership, 60 per cent said the former, of whom 61 per cent were Gore supporters.
Of the one in two who saw their family financial situation as having improved in the last four years, 60 per cent backed Mr Gore.
Some 54 per cent said that the scandals of the Clinton administration had either not been too important or not important at all in determining their vote. One third of those who thought them not too important were Bush supporters.
Mr Nader scored best among the under-29s (5 per cent) and those earning less than $15,000 a year: 31 per cent of them said they would not have voted on Tuesday if only Mr Gore's and Mr Bush's names had been on the ballot.
Whether Mr Bush or Mr Gore wins the White House, a big loser yesterday was the vaunted US television networks whose flip-flops on the results caused a night of vote-counting chaos.
Never before had the projections of all the networks swung so wildly. With the election still in doubt, criticism rolled in over their use of "exit polls" and haste to predict the winner.
"It's harmful to broadcast the results of a state before that state is finished," said Mr Matthew Felling, director of the media section of the Washington-based think-tank Centre for Media and Public Affairs. Indeed the major networks, all using data supplied by a consortium known as the Voter News Service, ignored the fact that Florida covered two time zones. The voting had not finished in one part of the state when television stations called it for Gore.
Mr Karl Rove, chief strategist for the Republicans, went on CNN to criticise the network and forced anchorman Bernard Shaw to acknowledge that the exit polls had been announced with only three-quarters of the polling precincts closed.
