Mr Romney went to Florida, where polls suggest he has the edge（优势）, and then to Virginia, New Hampshire and Ohio.

 

Mr Obama appeared in Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio, joined at rallies by Bruce Springsteen and rapper Jay-Z.

 

The election will be decided² in just a handful of states, with Ohio in particular seen as crucial to victory.

 

President Obama closed his re-election campaign in Des Moines, Iowa - the city where his bid for the presidency³ began in early 2007.

 

At a late-night rally, he told the crowd that Iowa had started "a movement that spread across the country".

 

Mr Romney, meanwhile, was due to end his campaign with a late-night rally in New Hampshire but made the surprise announcement that he would extend campaigning into election day itself - visiting Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

 

Mr Obama and Mr Romney are running almost neck-and-neck in national polls, in a campaign that has cost more than $2bn.

 

But surveys of the nine or so battleground states that will determine the election show Mr Obama narrowly ahead.

 

On the stroke of midnight, the first votes were cast and quickly counted in the tiny village of Dixville Notch⁴ in New Hampshire. They resulted in a tie with five votes each for Mr Obama and Mr Romney.

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