New York Sen. Hillary Clinton walked on to the floor of the Democratic National Convention shortly before 5 p.m. this afternoon to declare that her former rival Sen. Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.

"Let's declare together in one voice right here and right now that Barack Obama is our candidate,” she said on the floor of the Pepsi Center, while surrounded by elected leaders and dignitaries from her state.

Clinton's acclamation ended a state-by-state roll call vote that had started about an hour earlier and tallied votes from 33 states and territories.

Obama held a sizeable lead and, by party rules, enough votes for the convention to suspend the roll call.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced at 4:55 p.m. that Obama was the party's presidential nominee.

The roll call vote, which put both Obama's and Hillary Clinton's name into nomination, had been a bone of contention within the party, with Clinton supporters insisting that the convention feature a state-by-state tally to recognize the New York senator's historic campaign.

The issue had threatened to further tear apart party unity in the week leading up to Obama's acceptance speech Thursday evening.

Over the last few days, there had been multiple rumors about how the roll call vote would be carried out and how the votes would be counted.

It appeared that by going through the vote tally state by state and having Clinton herself bring the process to an end on the floor of the Pepsi Center, the Democratic Party averted a potentially embarassing walk-out or protest inside the hall.

Some of Clinton's supporters had threatened to carry out a visible protest if her delegate votes were not properly tallied.

Following the afternoon's dramatic delegate count, speakers once again took to the stage and the convention reclaimed its more ceremonial tone.

Obama's vice-presidential pick, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, is scheduled to give tonight's keynote address.