Obama wins, Romney concedes
President Barack Obama won re-election on Tuesday night, after a difficult, closely fought election with Mitt Romney.
Romney conceded the election at 1 a.m. EST. He called for bipartisan unity and urged America to pray for Obama in guiding the nation.
Ohio, Colorado, and Nevada were called by the networks for Obama just after 11 p.m., putting him well over the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election.
Florida and Virginia were very close races, with Obama having very narrow leads late in those races.
UPDATE: 11:15 P.M.
CNN has called the presidential election for Barack Obama, after saying Ohio will go to Obama. Other major networks have also called the election for Obama.
Iowa and Wisconsin had been called earlier for President Obama, putting him within striking distance of re-election.
The decision to call Ohio came after heavily Democratic regions of the state were projected to report late in the process. Obama was tied in Ohio at the time of the projected calling of the race.
Update: 11 p.m.
New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Michigan have gone to Obama.
A definitive win in Florida would clinch the election for Obama. But he needs to win by at least 0.5 percent to avoid an automatic recount.
In Ohio, Obama would need to win by at least 2 percent to avoid a potential recount.
So all eyes are on the finish lines in Florida and Ohio, to see the margins at the end of those elections fall outside the parameters of a recount.
If not, states like Virginia will come into play that have an equally tight margins in late voting.
UPDATE: 10 P.M.
In Iowa, Obama led Mitt Romney by a 52-46 margin, and Obama leads in Nevada by a 51-45 margin in the exit polls.
CNN also called the swing state of New Hampshire for Obama at 10 p.m.
If Obama goes on to win Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire, he would have 281 electoral votes. He needs 270 to be re-elected.
Romney will need to rally in Ohio and find a way to win one of five swing states (Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, Colorado, or New Hampshire) to take the election. That assumes Romney can take Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia.
UPDATE: 9:30 P.M.
Nate Silver, who made a forecast that President Obama had a better than 90 percent chance of beating Mitt Romney, says the “writing is on the wall” for the GOP contender.
Silver writes the FiveThirtyEight blog for The New York Times and has drawn a considerable amount of attention for his forecast models.
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CNN also just called the race in Pennsylvania for Obama.
UPDATE: 9 P.M.
CNN says the Wisconsin exit poll indicates President Barack Obama had a 6-point lead among voters, a key milestone in his re-election bid.
The combination of Ohio, Wisconsin, and Iowa or Nevada guarantees Obama’s victory over Mitt Romney.
Colorado was an even race in exit polls, while Obama had a slim 3 point lead in Minnesota.
The election results in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia remain very close, with long lines reported in Florida and Virginia.
Polls in Iowa and Nevada close at 10 p.m. EST.
UPDATE: 8 P.M.
CNN’s exit poll showed Obama up by 5 percentage points over Romney in Pennsylvania.
The exit polls for Florida showed Obama with a 1 point lead and Obama with a 2 point lead in New Hampshire. North Carolina was even.
The election in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District is too close to call.
UPDATE: 7:30 p.m.
CNN’s exit poll showed Obama up by 3 percentage point over Romney in Ohio.
The race in North Carolina was even between the two candidates, based on exit polls from CNN.
UPDATE: 7 P.M.
CNN political reporter Peter Hamby claims he has obtained internal polling from the Romney campaign that showed the candidate trailing by 5 points in Ohio as of Sunday.
Hamby added that GOP polling data showed Pennsylvania as a very tight race, which would be a startling development for Democrats. Hamby said the information came from a very credible source.
CNN also says its exit poll shows Virginia as a dead heat between Romney and Barack Obama.
The networks usually don’t report competitive data until polls close in affected states. Hamby said the polling data was from Sunday.
In past years, early media scoops and predictions have come back to haunt some outlets, including false reports in 2004 about John Kerry winning Ohio.
Many experts expect the Ohio race to be a drawn out affair.
