INDIANAPOLIS — To thunderous applause and the flash of cameras, Indiana's 11 presidential electors formally cast their ballots Monday for Barack Obama as Democrats savored the mostly ceremonial anointing of their party's first nominee to carry the state in 44 years.

Cheers were followed by sustained, rhythmic applause after Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced that all of Indiana's electors voted for Obama during the festive, 90-minute ceremony in the packed Indiana House chambers. Monday's vote was being repeated in state capitals nationwide in a step mandated by the Constitution as the country's Electoral College moved to close the book on November's election.

In all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the 538 electors performed a constitutional process to legally elect Democrat Barack Obama the 44th president.

More than 131 million voters cast ballots - the most ever in a presidential election. But Obama's election is not complete until Congress tallies the outcome of Monday's Electoral College vote at a joint session scheduled for Jan. 6.

Monday's voting was largely ceremonial, the results preordained by Obama's Nov. 4 victory over Republican Sen. John McCain. Obama won 365 electoral votes, to 173 for McCain. With every state reporting, all the electors had cast ballots in accordance with the popular votes in their states.

In many states, the formal, staid proceeding was poignant, particularly among people old enough to recall a time when voting alone posed the risk of violence for black Americans.

Indiana's only black elector, Cordelia Lewis-Burks, said it was a thrilling moment to be able to cast her ballot for Obama, who will be sworn in Jan. 20 as the nation's first black president.

“This is a part of history and for me it's triple exciting because Barack Obama is the president-elect,” said Lewis-Burks, a retired labor union official who is vice chairwoman of the Indiana Democratic Party.

Monday's voting came after Indiana's electors, like many of their counterparts nationwide, received e-mails and letters from people urging them not to vote for Obama on the purported grounds that he was born in Kenya, and is ineligible to serve as president. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to Obama's eligibility after turning down a similar appeal last week.

Before Monday's vote, a military color guard led the electors up the aisle of the House chambers, where the five women and six men were seated to the flash of cameras and applause from the gathering on the House floor and those who filled the balcony.

Rokita, a Republican, presided over the ceremony in his capacity as secretary of state.“Today is a celebration not just for Democrats, but for all of us,” he said.