Election Day arrives, sending voters streaming to the polls to pick the next president and the candidates themselves scrounging for last-minute votes. The presidential contest is likely to be close, hinging on a few key states like Ohio
A down-to-the-wire presidential election headed toward a final resolution tonight, with President Obama closing in on victory over Mitt Romney in a race that could hinge on a trio of smaller Midwest and Western states.
Election night had all the makings of a cliffhanger, with decisive ballots still being tallied in the big battleground states of Ohio, Florida and Virginia. Given the tightness of the initial results there, the counting might yet stretch at least into early Wednesday before a winner could be declared in those states.
But an alternate path to victory loomed for Obama: Iowa, Colorado and Nevada, whose combined electoral votes would be enough to propel him over the 270 threshold clinching a second term. All three state were close in early returns.
Florida, Ohio and Virginia -- all virtual must-wins for Romney -- were too close to call, based on partial returns. If he swept all three, he would still need one more state, probably Colorado or Nevada, to win the election.
As expected, Obama took more than a dozen states, and the District of Columbia, including Illinois, Vermont, Rhode Island and Maryland. Romney’s late play for Pennsylvania, a state no Republican has carried since 1988, fell short. The GOP nominee also lost his home state of Massachusetts and his native Michigan. And the after-effects of Hurricane Sandy didn’t prevent Obama from winning New York and New Jersey, along with the rest of the heavily Democratic Northeast.
Romney, meantime, turned the electoral map red across a vast stretch of the South, Great Plains and much of the Mountain West. He won Indiana, the first state to switch from Obama in 2008 back to the GOP. But he had yet to take a single one of the swing states, while Obama picked up the battlegrounnds of New Hampshire and, according to network projections, Wisconsin.
The battlegrounds that held the keys to the White House were anything but settled — Virginia, Ohio and Florida among them — with long lines in many locations long after poll-close time.
Romney led in the national popular vote with 17.9 million votes, or 50 percent. Obama had 17.2 million, or 48 percent, with 19 percent of precincts tallied.
The former Massachusetts governor also held an early electoral vote advantage, 153-123, with 270 needed for victory, although he lost his home state of Michigan as well as Massachusetts, where he served as governor.
Obama led in Pennsylvania, where Romney campaigned twice in the race's closing days.
Obama is the winner of the 16 electoral votes in Michigan -- the state that benefitted the most from the auto industry bailout. Michigan, where Mitt Romney's father served as governor, wasn't heavily contested by the two campaigns, though it did see some late GOP advertising.
Obama also won in New Jersey, battered last week by Hurricane Sandy.
Romney, meanwhile, has added Alabama's nine electoral votes to his column. Romney also captured the 38 electoral votes at stake in Texas, and added wins in Louisiana, Mississippi, Kansas, South Dakota, North Dakota, Arkansas and Wyoming. He also won at least four of Nebraska's five votes.
Obama won in New York, with 29 electoral votes. At last count, Romney has 153 electoral votes to Obama's 123.
Obama and Romney were locked in a tight race with battleground states too close to call. Given the tightness of the initial results, there was a possibility that the counting could stretch at least into Wednesday before a winner could be declared.
Shortly after polls closed 20 states were called for one candidate or the other, with Obama taking Illinois, Vermont, Rhode Island and Romney’s home state of Massachusetts, among others. Romney carried a swath of southern states, including Alabama, Oklahoma, Kentucky and South Carolina, as well as West Virginia and Indiana -- the latter the first state to switch from Obama in 2008 back to the GOP.
But the election was riding on the results in no more than 10 battlegrounds, including Virginia, Florida and Ohio -- all virtual must-wins for Romney and too close to call in the early going.
Democrats were encouraged by early vote-counting in Ohio and Florida that showed the president holding slight leads in each. Romney held an early lead in a third battleground state, Virginia.
Romney needs all three of those states to navigate a narrow path to the presidency, while Obama can afford to lose one or two of them and still win a second four-year term.
Voters also chose a new Congress to serve alongside the man who will be inaugurated president in January, Democrats defending their majority in the Senate, and Republicans in the House. Eleven states picked governors, and ballot measures ranging from gay marriage to gambling dotted ballots.
The economy was rated the top issue by about 60 percent of voters surveyed as they left their polling places. About 4 in 10 said it is on the mend.
More than that said conditions are as bad or getting worse, but a significant fraction said former President George W. Bush bears more of the responsibility than Obama. The survey was conducted for The Associated Press and a group of television networks.
The long campaign's cost soared into the billions, much of it spent on negative ads, some harshly so.
Romney raced to Ohio and Pennsylvania for Election Day campaigning and projected confidence as he flew home to Massachusetts to await the results. "We fought to the very end, and I think that's why we'll be successful," he said, adding that he had finished writing a speech anticipating victory.
Obama made get-out-the-vote calls from a campaign office near his home in Chicago and found time for his traditional Election Day basketball game with friends. Addressing his rival, he said, "I also want to say to Gov. Romney, 'Congratulations on a spirited campaign.' I know his supporters are just as engaged, just as enthusiastic and working just as hard today." Romney, in turn, congratulated the president for running a "strong campaign."
Other than the battlegrounds, big states were virtually ignored in the final months of the campaign. Romney wrote off New York, Illinois and California, while Obama made no attempt to carry Texas, much of the South or the Rocky Mountain region other than Colorado.
There were 33 Senate seats on the ballot, 23 of them defended by Democrats and the rest by Republicans.
The GOP needed a gain of three for a majority if Romney won, and four if Obama was re-elected. Neither Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada nor GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was on the ballot, but each had high stakes in the outcome.
All 435 House seats were on the ballot, including five where one lawmaker ran against another as a result of once-a-decade redistricting to take population shifts into account. Democrats needed to pick up 25 seats to gain the majority they lost two years ago.
Depending on the outcome of a few races, it was possible that white men would wind up in a minority in the Democratic caucus for the first time.
Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, raised millions to finance get-out-the-vote operations in states without a robust presidential campaign, New York, Illinois and California among them. His goal was to minimize any losses, or possibly even gain ground, no matter Romney's fate. House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California campaigned aggressively, as well, and faced an uncertain political future if her party failed to win control.
In gubernatorial races, Republicans hoped to gain seats after Democratic retirements in New Hampshire, Washington, Montana and especially North Carolina.
The Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed.
