“What the people say today is a sacred word,” Capriles said. “To know how to win, you also have to know how to lose.”

The words seemed to have a calming effect on a nation that often fretted that either side might not accept defeat. In the waning days of the campaign, Chávez had gone as far as to suggest that his loss might spark a civil war.

Carolina Haskour, 41, was wearing a shirt that read “You snooze you lose” and waiting at the Baruta polling station hoping to catch a glimpse of Capriles.

She said she voted for the former mayor, governor and legislator because she’s tired of the nation’s political polarization and soaring crime rate.

“I want the country to be what it was before,” she said. “There’s so much hate now. I want a country where we don’t fight with each other just because we have different political views.”

But others still see Chávez as the only person willing to fight for them.

“I am 82 years old and I can tell you we’ve never had a president as good as this,” said María Pinzón who lives in Antimano. “He’s made mistakes, but there’s no one else like him.”

On the campaign trail, Chávez highlighted his social programs and presented himself in his motto and jingles as the “heart of the nation.”

If that’s the case, then “I voted for a heart transplant,” said Jorge San Martin, a computer engineer. San Martin said he had to wait three hours due to voting-machine failures in his neighborhood, La Florida.

For many, the day kicked off at 3 a.m. when fireworks began popping over Caracas, followed later by sound-trucks playing reveille. Chávez had ordered supporters to vote early to guarantee his victory and give his organizers time to take stragglers to the polls.

The strategy seems to have worked. At a voting center in Caricuao, a group of Chávez supporters huddled under a red tent and kept a list of everyone in their community who had voted. They said they would go rouse those who didn’t make it to the polls.

“We’re seeing a massive turnout,” said Tania Peña, one of the organizers. “We’re here because we want socialism, equality and all the social missions.”

At the technical school where Chávez cast his vote, the walls were covered in pictures of the young president and Karl Marx. It also has a quote from Latin American liberator Simon Bolivar scrawled on a wall.

“You can lose all of the battles,” it reads, “except for the last one.”

El Nuevo Herald staff writer Juan Tamayo contributed to this report from Caracas.

El Nuevo Herald staff writer Juan Tamayo contributed to this report from Caracas.