US polls open for tight presidential contest
US polling stations opened on Tuesday, with Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney locked in a tight presidential contest after a burst of last-minute campaigning. Polls opened at 6am in battleground states New Hampshire and Virginia – either of which could decide the election – as well as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine and Vermont.
US polling stations opened on Tuesday, with Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney locked in a tight presidential contest after a burst of last-minute campaigning.
Polls opened at 6am in battleground states New Hampshire and Virginia – either of which could decide the election – as well as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine and Vermont.
After a nearly two-year-long campaign season – the most expensive and one of the most negative on record – Americans will decide whether to re-elect Obama despite the sluggish economy or opt for the change promised by Romney.
Tuesday’s first votes were cast just after midnight in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, which boasts the first ballots in US elections.
Democrat Obama, 51, leads his Republican foe by a whisker heading into polling day as he seeks to defy historical precedent that suggests incumbent presidents fail to win a second four-year term at times of high unemployment.
Romney, 65, a former Massachusetts governor blasted by critics as a rich plutocrat indifferent to middle class pain, would make history as the first Mormon president and promises to ignite economic growth and job creation.