Americans finally vote after most expensive campaigns in history

WASHINGTON
Americans voted on Tuesday in a nail-biting presidential election marked by the starkly different economic visions of Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

The time for obsessing over key state opinion polls was over as the greatest political show entered its thrilling finale after an 18-month roller-coaster ride that exposed the nation’s bitter polarisation.

The most expensive campaign in US history saw an estimated $6 billion (Sh510 billion) unleashed by the rival camps in a fight to win over that thin sliver of the electorate that could swing either way.

After a frantic burst of last-minute campaigning, voters were deciding whether to re-elect Obama despite the plodding economy or hand the reins to Romney, who has vowed a return to prosperity through a smaller government.

They will also cast judgment on a third of the Democratic-led Senate and the entire Republican-run House of Representatives.

But with neither chamber expected to change hands, the current political gridlock will likely linger.

Obama, 51, led his Republican opponent by a whisker heading into polling day as he sought to defy a historical precedent that suggests American presidents fail to win second four-year terms 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.

Casting his vote in Belmont, Massachusetts, with wife Ann, Romney said he felt “very, very good” about his election prospects, but his decision to make unusual polling day trips to Ohio and Pennsylvania betrayed nerves to some.

Both men made their final, heartfelt pleas to voters in late night rallies on Monday attended by fervent supporters.

“Tomorrow, from the granite of New Hampshire to the Rockies of Colorado, from the coastlines of Florida to Virginia’s rolling hills, from the valleys of Ohio to these Iowa fields, we will keep America moving forward,” said Obama.

Speaking in Iowa, the state that first nurtured his White House dreams in 2008, a single tear rolled down the president’s face as he wrapped up what was — win or lose — his last-ever campaign event.

Romney put an exclamation mark on his campaign with his own, rowdy late night rally at a sports arena in New Hampshire, where he launched his own White House crusade almost 19 months ago.

“Tomorrow is a moment to look into the future and imagine what we can do, to put that past four years behind us and build a new future,” he said.

Voters will also weigh in on more than 170 state-wide ballot issues for everything from gay marriage to marijuana legalisation and abortion.

A dispiriting White House race, so different from Obama’s euphoric drive for hope and change in 2008, produced the election both sides expected — a frantic scrap for thin victory margins in 10 or so swing states.