BY GBENGA OKE, in US & Dotun Ibiwoye, with agency reports

There was a large turn-out of voters as Americans headed to the voting booths, while campaign teams for both candidates were furiously working their  phones to urge supporters to cast their ballots.

Opinion polls show incumbent president Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney are in a virtual dead heat, although according to agency reports, Obama has a slight advantage in several vital  states that could give him the 270 electoral votes needed to win the state-by-state contest.

The outcome lookswhich will definitely be settled in just a handful of key states because  US states are attributed electoral votes according to their population from California, the most populous, with 55 electoral votes and states with smaller populations having just three

Romney’s campaigning took a surprise announcement, when his team said he would continue to campaign on election day itself and he will vote near his home in Belmont, Massachusetts.

More conventionally, Obama is to stay put in his home town, Chicago, on Tuesday. He is planning a game of basketball with friends and staff, but is not totally abandoning the campaign trail, with about a dozen television and radio interviews planned.

Hitches in some areas
New Yorkers went  to the polls in sunny, but frigid, weather to cast ballots in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, special voting arrangements were made to ensure as many eligible voters as possible could get to the polls.

Board of Election officials relocated several polling sites because of power outages and damage after Sandy swept through the northeastern United States eight days ago.

Special buses have been deployed to hard hit areas to shuttle voters to polling stations.  In some locations, multiple districts have been consolidated into a single site – sometimes in a tent – where people can vote.

Authorities in Philadelphia say a judge has issued a court order allowing all certified minority inspectors into Philadelphia polling places.

The Republican Party said dozens of legally credentialed minority voting inspectors were removed from polling places in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Seth Williams, says a judge has now issued a court order allowing all minority voting inspectors into polling places.

There were also tension in Ohio, New Jersey and in St. Petersburg, an hour after polls opened yesterday, the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Office mistakenly placed thousands of automatic calls to voters instructing them that they had until 7 p.m. Wednesday to vote.

Dixville Notch share votes

Early voting took place in the smallest area of the United States, Dixville Notch, New Hampshire this morning with both Presidential Candidates sharing the the 10votes equally.

Both President Obama and Mitt Romney had 5votes each, a situation which further confirms a tie in the Presidential race.

President Obama won Dixville Notch in 2008 with 15votes while Sen MCain got 6votes. By tradition, the enclave village of Dixville Notch located in Coos County, N.H is one of the locations that get to cast the first vote of the Presidential election just after midnight of the election day.

It was however confirmed this is the first time two Presidential candidate would have a tie in the little village.