REPORT: Obama, Romney close out campaigns for president

After months of campaigning and billions of dollars spent in the battle for leadership of the world's most powerful country, Obama and Romney were in a virtual nationwide tie ahead of Tuesday's election, an overt symptom of the vast partisan divide separating Americans in the early years of the 21st century.     

Obama appeared to have a slight edge, however, in some of the key swing states such as Ohio that do not vote reliably Democratic or Republican. That gives him an easier path to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.     

Romney decided to make a late dash to Cleveland and Pittsburgh for rallies on Tuesday before returning to his Boston home to await the returns. Obama, who spent Monday night at his home on Chicago's South Side, opted to make a dozen radio and satellite TV interviews from Chicago to swing states to keep his closing arguments fresh in voters' minds.

Romney has made a late-campaign drive for Pennsylvania, a state that had been seen as solidly in the Obama column. The move was widely seen as a push  perhaps against all odds  to compensate for Obama's expected victory in Ohio.     

Under the U.S. system, the winner of the presidential election is not determined by the nationwide popular vote but in state-by-state contests. The candidate who wins a state  with Maine and Nebraska the exceptions  is awarded all of that state's electoral votes, which are apportioned based on representation in Congress.     

Both sides cast the Election Day choice as one with far-reaching repercussions for a nation still recovering from the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression and at odds over how big a role government should play in solving the country's problems.


AP