Voting begins in 2012 US presidential election

U.S. voters will have the final say Tuesday in a very close presidential-election contest between President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

National polls show the race basically deadlocked, and that spurred the candidates into a frenzy of last-minute visits to key states where the election remains in doubt and will likely be decided.

Both President Obama and Romney campaigned in states they need to win in an election that opinion polls say is very close.

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

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

The election will be decided 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 presidency began in early 2007.

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

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.

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

States receiving the most attention late in the campaign include Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Wisconsin.

The race has gotten closer since Romney