U.S. broadcast networks project that President Barack Obama has won reelection for a second four-year term, defeating Republican Party rival Mitt Romney.
With votes still being counted, Obama was thought to have scored key victories in several closely competitive “swing states” that could help tip the balance in America’s presidential election.
Citing partial official results and exit polls, U.S. broadcast networks project Obama so far winning at least 275 electoral votes -- more than the 270 vote Electoral College majority to secure the presidency.
Obama’s projected wins have come from "swing" states like Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He also has projected wins in the West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as his boyhood home state of Hawaii.
The projections so far show Romney winning 203 electoral votes, including the swing state of North Carolina, as well as from Texas, Arizona, Louisiana, and Georgia.
LIVE ELECTION MAP: Projected Election Results
The Electoral College, not the nationwide popular vote, decides the presidency. Each state has a share of electoral votes, based on its population.
The vote count so far is extremely close in the key battleground state of Florida, with Obama holding a slight lead.
Swing states are those that are considered key to tipping the balance in favor of one candidate or the other in the Electoral College.
Long Lines
In other developments, complaints about voting procedures have surfaced in states including Pennsylvania and Florida. Reports said voters were forced to wait in long lines to cast their ballots in some states.
Nationwide polls just ahead of Election Day showed Obama and Romney virtually tied.
Romney spoke to reporters on November 6 aboard his campaign plane and said he is confident of victory.
"We fought to the very end and I think that's why we'll be successful. I just finished writing a victory speech. It's about 1,118 words," Romney said. "And I'm sure it'll change before I'm finished because I haven't passed it around to my family, and friends, and advisers to get their reaction. But I've only written one speech at this point."
A boy runs to tell voters where to enter the Town Hall of Canterbury, New Hampshire.
A voter walks past a New York police officer inside a tent at a polling site built to service residents of the Queens borough neighborhoods of Breezy Point and the Rockaways, whose original site was devastated by superstorm Sandy.
Tom Hoisington (right) raises his right hand after being registered to vote at the Bishop Leo O'Neil Youth Center in Manchester, New Hampshire. Hoisington's grandson, Tonykus Hebert, mimics his grandfather.
A girl watches as her grandmother votes at the old Town Hall in Bristol, New Hampshire.
People wait in line to vote at Caroline High School in Milford, Virginia.
Voters at the polls in a car dealership in Columbus, Ohio.
An election worker hangs signs at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C.
Volunteer peeks outside the Pinellas County Democratic Party headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida.
A pregnant woman shows off the voting sticker on her belly outside the old Town Hall in Bristol, New Hampshire.
U.S. citizens vote in the presidential election at Carleton Middle School in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
A voter wears an "I Voted" sticker on his forehead after casting his ballot at a polling station in Chicago, Illinois.
A voter casts her ballot with her two children at a polling place in a U.S. cellular store in Chicago.
People wait in line to vote in Coral Gables, Florida.
People line up to vote in Crawfordville, Florida.
U.S. President Barack Obama makes a phone call to a campaign volunteer during a visit to a field office in Chicago on Election Day.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, finish filling out their ballots while voting in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Obama and Romney have set out different approaches for reviving the U.S. economy, which most voters have said it the most important issue facing the country.
The candidates have also presented different views on U.S. social issues, and the appropriate way for America to conduct its foreign policy.
Romney voted on election day in the state of Massachusetts, where he once served as governor.
President Obama cast an early ballot last week in his hometown of Chicago.
Obama and Romney are estimated to have raised a combined than $2.5 billion to fund their campaigns.