Article content

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama grabbed an advantage in the race for the White House late on Tuesday with wins in key swing states that limited Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s path to victory as U.S. voters decided between two starkly different visions for the country.

Obama’s wins in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire – all states that Romney had contested – put pressure on the Republican to score victories in Ohio, Florida and Virginia, three battleground states where the race remained too close to call.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or U.S. Election: Obama picks up momentum as nation's focus fixes on Ohio and Florida Back to video

At least 120 million American voters 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.

If the trend held up, Obama looked poised to win a second four-year term faced with a difficult task of tackling $1 trillion annual deficits, reducing a $16 trillion national debt, overhauling expensive social programs and dealing with a gridlocked U.S. Congress that looked likely to maintain the same partisan makeup.