Four candidates are now seen as being within reach of the presidency: the conservative François Fillon, the far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, Liberal Centrist Emmanuel Macron and the far-left's Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The leader of France's far-right National Front (FN) party hopes that she will be a leading figure in this radical reordering of the global elite, which already counts the election of US President Donald Trump and the British vote to leave the European Union among its successes.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Le Pen called for France to "immediately" take back control of its borders from the European Union and deport all foreigners on a terror watchlist.
Other candidates also cast their ballot Sunday morning, including Socialist Benoit Hamon and far-leftist Philippe Poutou.
It sets up a battle between Mr Macron's optimistic vision of a tolerant France with open borders against Ms Le Pen's darker, inward-looking platform calling for closed borders, tougher security, less immigration and dropping the shared euro currency to return to the franc.
Macron is a liberal, former investment banker and an avowed internationalist who worked as economic minister in France's Socialist government.
Republican Francois Fillon said Le Pen would lead the country into bankruptcy, chaos, violence, extremism and division. Socialist President Francois Hollande is the most unpopular in modern French record-keeping.
As president, she says she would bring in an immediate moratorium on long-term migration until a quota system could be introduced. "The center is stronger than the populists think!"
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Jean-Marie Le Pen was crushed in the second round by Jacques Chirac, but his daughter is expected to do significantly better.
The narrow margin between Macron and Le Pen, which remains too close to call, signals that there has been little if any bump in the polls for Le Pen following the tragic terrorist incident four days before the election on Thursday on the Champs-Elysees, where one police officer was killed by an ISIS-inspired gunman. "And Macron, I don't really have confidence in him either".
When she was eight, a bomb ripped through the Paris apartment building where the family lived, slightly injuring six people but sparing the Le Pens. "She inherited her father's party and we will undoubtedly have Le Pens running for the next 20 years, because after we had the father, we have the daughter and we will doubtless have the niece", he said, referring to Marion Marechal-Le Pen.
Macron appears to have won the majority of the vote, with around 24 percent, while Le Pen came in second, with at least 21 percent, according to preliminary estimates based on exit polls.
Protesters waved red flags and sang "No Marine and No Macron!" in anger at the election results.
He told supporters at a rally in Paris: "There is no other choice but to vote against the far right, I will vote for Emmanuel Macron".
Some 300 people gathered at a peaceful protest at nearby Place de la Republique, waving red flags and dancing around the flames of a bonfire.
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