US Presidential Election: Candidates in deadlock as America goes to polls

Americans were heading to the polls today in one of the closest presidential races in US history, with experts unable to say with certainty whether Barack Obama will be returned to the White House or forced to vacate for his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

The candidates entered election-day deadlocked in almost every major national opinion poll, raising the prospect of recounts in a handful of key battleground states and the possibility that a victor might not be known for many hours, or perhaps several days.

After a year and a half of furious and often controversial campaigning over issues as diverse as healthcare, US policy in the Middle East, women’s rights and even the future of Sesame Street’s Big Bird, the decision 
essentially comes down to which candidate the electorate trusts on the economy.

Mr Obama, who made final-day campaign visits to the swing states of Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa, urged voters to stay the course and give him more time to tackle the nation’s burgeoning national debt and reduce an unemployment rate higher now than when he took office in January 2009.

“Four years ago we had incredible turnout and I know people were excited and energised about the prospect of making history,” Mr Obama said in his final radio address of the campaign yesterday.

“We have to preserve the gains we’ve made and keep moving forward. If we don’t turn out the vote we could lose a lot of the gains we’ve already made.”

Mr Romney, appearing at rallies in must-win states of Florida and Virginia before late visits to Ohio and New Hampshire, has promised to create 12 million new jobs and get the country “roaring back” after what he called Mr Obama’s failed first term of broken pledges.

“He promised to do so very much but, frankly, he fell so very short,” Mr Romney told supporters in Cleveland, Ohio.

“He promised to be a post-partisan president, but he’s been most partisan; he’s been divisive, blaming, attacking, dividing. And it’s not only Republicans that he refused to listen to, he also refused to listen to independent voices.”

The intense pace of electioneering continued right up to last night as both men and their respective vice-presidential candidates, Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan, tried to squeeze out every last vote. Last-minute campaign advertisements dominated television and radio airwaves in the “toss-up” states, where Mr Obama is deemed to hold a slight advantage.

Today’s election will also decide the make-up of the US Senate and House of Representatives that the next president will have to work with. The races are similarly close, with the parties tipped to each pick-up three seats from the other in the Senate and the Republicans hold a 0.4 per cent advantage in the projected vote for the House.

It would mean the Democrats retaining a 53-47 Senate majority and the Republicans holding on to a clear majority of Congressmen and women.