* Obama wins Wisconsin, Pennsylvania
* Map of Congress likely to stay same
* Virginia, Florida and Ohio too close to call
* Obama seeking second four-year term as U.S. president
By Steve Holland and John Whitesides
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama rolled
up victories in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania on Tuesday and
limited Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s path to victory as
U.S. voters decided between two starkly different visions for
the country.
Obama’s victories in the two states put pressure on Romney
to score victories in Ohio, Florida and Virginia, three
battleground states where the race was too close to call.
At least 120 million people were expected to decide between
the Democratic incumbent and Romney after a long, expensive and
bitter presidential campaign centered around how to repair the
ailing U.S. economy.
In the state-by-state battle to get to 270 electoral votes
needed for the presidency, Obama and Romney piled up early
victories in the states they were expected to win easily.
Early vote-counting in the swing state of Florida showed
them running neck-and-neck. Obama led in the critical
battleground state of Ohio and Romney held an early lead in a
third swing state, Virginia.
Romney needs all three of those states to navigate a narrow
path to the presidency, while Obama could afford to lose one or
two of them and still win a second four-year term.
The Republican’s chances were hit by Obama victories in
Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as well as New Hampshire. Romney
last week visited Wisconsin, home state of his vice presidential
running mate, Paul Ryan, and had stopped in Pennsylvania earlier
on Tuesday in hopes of pulling off a surprise win there.
In a victory that also limited Romney’s path to a victory,
Obama won Michigan, the Republican’s state of birth but where he
ran afoul of voters by opposing an auto industry bailout pushed
by Obama. Some polls had shown a tight race there.
Television networks projected Romney the winner, as
expected, in Republican states Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi,
Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Indiana.
He was declared the winner in Texas, Kansas, Louisiana,
Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Obama was projected the winner in the Democratic strongholds
of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Vermont, Connecticut,
Delaware, Massachusetts and his home state of Illinois, as well
as Washington, D.C.
Who Americans choose will set the country’s course for the
next four years on spending, taxes, healthcare, the role of
government and foreign policy challenges such as the rise of
China and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Each man offered different policies to cure what ails
America’s weak economy, with Obama pledging to raise taxes on
the wealthy and Romney offering across-the-board tax cuts as a
way to ignite strong economic growth.
National opinion polls before the election showed Obama and
Romney in a virtual dead heat, although Obama had a slight
advantage in several vital swing states – most notably Ohio –
that could give him the 270 electoral votes needed to win the
state-by-state contest.
According to Reuters-Ipsos Election Day polling, one in
three Obama voters said the economy was the most important issue
for them, while half of Romney voters agreed. Healthcare was the
second most important issue for Obama voters and the budget
deficit was second for Romney voters. Unemployment was third for
both.
Three-quarters of both Romney and Obama supporters decided
to vote for their preferred candidate before the October debates
between the candidates, according to the data.
The Romney side was encouraged by what was described as
heavy turnout in Republican areas from Florida to Colorado.
Romney made last-minute visits to Ohio and Pennsylvania on
Tuesday to try to drive up turnout in those states, while Vice
President Joe Biden was dispatched to Ohio. Obama remained in
his hometown of Chicago.
‘I’M VERY PROUD’
Expressing confidence, Romney told reporters on his plane as
he flew back to Boston that he had written only one speech for
evening, one celebrating his victory.
“I’m very proud of the campaign that I’ve run, to tell you
the truth,” he said. “I’m sure like any campaign, people can
talk to mistakes, but that’s going to be part of anything that’s
produced by human beings,” he said.
Obama told a Denver television station he had speeches ready
for either outcome. “You always have two speeches prepared
because you can’t take anything for granted,” he told FOX31.
The multimillionaire former head of a private equity firm
and a former governor of Massachusetts, Romney would be the
first Mormon president and one of the wealthiest Americans to
assume the nation’s highest office.
Obama, the country’s first black president, seeks to avoid
being relegated to a single term, something that has happened to
only one of the previous four occupants of the White House.
Whichever candidate wins, a razor-thin margin might not bode
well for the clear mandate needed to help break the partisan
gridlock in Washington.
Fueled by record spending on negative ads, the battle
between the two men was focused primarily on the lagging
economic recovery and persistently high unemployment, but at
times it turned personal.
The close race raises the prospect of a disputed outcome
similar to the 2000 election, which ended with a U.S. Supreme
Court decision favoring George W. Bush over Al Gore after legal
challenges to the tight vote in Florida. Both the Romney and
Obama campaigns have assembled legal teams to deal with possible
voting problems, challenges or recounts.
COMPLAINTS AND FRUSTRATION
Although voting appeared to go smoothly in most places,
complaints about procedures and possible irregularities surfaced
sporadically across the electoral map. But there were no
immediate claims of anything widespread or systematic enough to
cast doubt on the credibility of the election outcome.
Storm-weary residents across New York and New Jersey
encountered long lines as they went to cast their ballots just
over a week after the devastating storm Sandy caused havoc in
the region. New Jersey granted a last-minute extension to the
deadline for email voting.
The balance of power in the U.S. Congress will also be at
stake in races for the Senate and House of Representatives that
could affect the outcome of “fiscal-cliff” negotiations on
spending cuts and tax increases, which kick in at the end of the
year unless a deal is reached.
Obama’s Democrats are now expected to narrowly hold their
Senate majority, while Romney’s Republicans were projected to
retain House control.
Former Maine Governor Angus King won a three-way contest for
the Senate seat of retiring Republican Olympia Snowe. King ran
as an independent, but he is expected to caucus with Democrats
in what would amount to a Democratic pick-up.
Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson easily beat back a
challenge from Republican congressman Connie Mack to win a third
term, while Democratic congressman Chris Murphy beat Republican
Linda McMahon, a businesswoman who had served as chief executive
of a professional wrestling company.
Democrat Elizabeth Warren won the U.S. Senate seat for
Massachusetts. In the high-profile Senate race, Warren, a law
professor who headed the watchdog panel that oversaw the
government’s financial sector bailout, defeated incumbent
Republican Senator Scott Brown.
