The gruelling race to the White House between President Barack Obama and his rival Mitt Romney entered the final sprint as they made a last minute bid to win over undecided voters in key swing states ahead of Tuesday's presidential election, expected to be a photo-finish.
The gruelling race to the White House between President Barack Obama and his rival Mitt Romney entered the final sprint as they made a last minute bid to win over undecided voters in key swing states ahead of Tuesday's presidential election, expected to be a photo-finish.
The battle for the presidency has narrowed to 10 swing states, with Obama and Romney engaging in last ditch efforts to break into each others' votebanks and latest opinion polls indicating that the race for the world's most powerful job is tied.
A new CNN poll showed 49% support for Democrat Obama and 49% for Republican Romney.
A Politico/George Washington University survey has it tied at 48%; an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll indicates Obama at 48% and Romney at 47%; and the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll puts Obama at 49% and Romney at 48%.
Obama's strategy on the final day was to cement his last line of defence in the crucial industrial mid west and attempt to pluck away several insurance states from Romney target list.
65-year-old Romney, who started as an underdog but grew into a formidable opponent, dashed through Iowa and Ohio, trying to break into the Democrat citadels, telling voters that Obama's record, particularly on the economy, did not warrant a return to the White House.
Obama, 51, wrapped up his campaign today at a community college in Colorado.
Obama painted tomorrow's vote as a choice between policies that have moved the country out of the depths of recession and ones that got it into one in the first place.
With the election just a day away, campaigning ended today, bringing down the curtain on several months of high voltage exchange of words between the two candidates, that often turned bitter and nasty.
Both the candidate also pledged to be bipartisan in an effort to appeal to independent voters, who will help decide the race.
"I want all parties to work together. "We're not Democrats and Republicans first. We're Americans first... As long as I'm president, I will work with anybody, of any party, to move this country forward," Obama said at a rally in Hollywood.
Both campaigns are focusing their attention on the swing states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Yesterday, Romney used his campaign stops to hammer at Obama's track record, particularly on the economy, saying it didn't warrant returning him to the White House.
"Throughout this campaign, using everything he can think of, President Obama has tried to convince you his last four years have been a success," Romney said.
"So his plan for the next four years is to take all the ideas from his first term -- the borrowing, Obamacare and all the rest -- and do them all over again. He calls his plan 'forward.' I call it forewarned."
Thirty million voters have already cast their ballot through early voting across 34 states. In the 2008 presidential poll, 130 million people voted.
The election is decided by the electoral college. Each state is given a number of votes based on a mix of population and representation in Congress. The candidate who wins 270 electoral college votes becomes president.
A handful of governors, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are also up for election tomorrow. Republicans are expected to keep control of the House, while Democrats were tipped to remain in sway of the Senate, according to media reports.
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