By Christine Stebbins MILWAUKEE | Mon Nov 5, 2012 8:00pm EST MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - The Congress could delay passage of a new five-year farm bill until spring planting given the full plate of legislation needed after the election to avoid a fiscal cliff with its mandatory U.S. budget cuts, a top farm policy expert said on Monday. "My prediction is...

By Verna Gates BIRMINGHAM, Alabama | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:25pm EST BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Alabama may not be a battleground state but its Republicans will be armed for victory on Tuesday night. The party, which dominates local politics and is a champion of gun rights, will hold its main election night celebration at a firing range and gun s...

By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Florida | Mon Nov 5, 2012 6:53pm EST ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Florida voters cast fewer early ballots in the 2012 presidential election than in 2008, but they submitted more absentee ballots than they did four years ago, according to statewide elections figures released on Monday. Overall, almost 40 percent of Flori...

By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 5:53pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are essentially tied on the eve of Election Day, but the Democrat has a slight edge in some of the pivotal states where the election will be decided, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling released on Monday. Na...

Mon Nov 5, 2012 5:50pm EST (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday New Yorkers affected by superstorm Sandy will be allowed to vote in Tuesday's U.S. election in any polling place by presenting an affidavit. Cuomo said he was signing an executive order on Monday that will allow voters to cast ballots at voting stations other than the ones to whi...

WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 5:44pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House race between U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney remained a cliffhanger in four critical states that may tip the outcome of Tuesday's election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on the eve of the election. Incumbent Obama maintained a 4 p...

By Patricia Zengerle FAIRFAX, Virginia | Mon Nov 5, 2012 5:16pm EST FAIRFAX, Virginia (Reuters) - Presidential elections typically end with a flurry of late rallies, as candidates hopscotch across the country to make last-minute appeals, in person, to as many voters as possible. But there is little evidence to show that the frenzied late campaign...

LONDON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 5:06pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday won the less than resounding backing of European newspapers, which concluded he had done just about enough to deserve re-election in preference to a flip-flopping Republican challenger. Support for the incumbent was often based more on what he had avoided - an economi...

By Samuel P. Jacobs MINNEAPOLIS | Mon Nov 5, 2012 1:24pm EST MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - He's sold hot dogs in Minnesota and spent summers in Colorado. His mother lives in Florida and Ohio looks just like his native Wisconsin. Whatever the swing state, Paul Ryan finds a way to call it home. Addressing one of his largest crowds of the 2012 presidentia...

It was all very un-Tico. A internal tribunal has fired a judge at the criminal court in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste province, for workplace harrassment of employees under her direction. A group of employees filed a number of complaints of allegedly hostile actions that resulted in a closed hearing Oct. 26 that resulted in her dismissal. The tribunal termed the judge's attitude "very grave." Despi...

By John Whitesides WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:11am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney make a frenetic dash to a series of crucial swing states on Monday, delivering their final arguments to voters on the last day of an extraordinarily close race for the White House. After a long, bitter and...

By Andy Sullivan and Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 5, 2012 4:39am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The devastating storm that slammed into the East Coast last week could send winds of uncertainty through Tuesday's presidential election, narrowing an already close contest and casting doubt on the legitimacy of the outcome. Though superstorm Sandy i...

By Samuel P. Jacobs CASTLE ROCK, Colorado | Sun Nov 4, 2012 11:22pm EST CASTLE ROCK, Colorado (Reuters) - In a telephone call with evangelical voters Sunday night, U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan told potential voters that President Barack Obama's path for the United States compromises Judeo-Christian values. The comment cam...

By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 4, 2012 2:52pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The race for the White House remained in essentially a dead heat ahead of Tuesday's election but U.S. President Barack Obama holds a slim edge over Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the key state of Ohio, according to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released on ...

MIAMI | Sun Nov 4, 2012 1:09pm EST MIAMI (Reuters) - Early voting was extended on Sunday at a central Florida polling site that was disrupted a day earlier by a bomb scare, and the Florida Democratic Party filed a lawsuit seeking extended early voting at other areas plagued by long lines. Saturday was the last day for early voting in Florida, where polls...

WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 4, 2012 12:19pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The race between U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney remained in a dead heat ahead of Tuesday's election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll released on Sunday. Of 3,805 likely voters polled nationally, 48 percent said they would vote for Democrat ...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico | Sun Nov 4, 2012 11:17am EST SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Puerto Ricans, long divided over the U.S. Caribbean territory's political status, head to the polls on Tuesday in a vote that will help determine whether the island seeks to become the 51st U.S. state. Debate over the island's status has long dominated politics in Puert...

By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 4, 2012 10:34am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Normally outspoken Nancy Pelosi is mum about her future. She won't say if she will step aside as Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives if her party fails, as expected, to win back the chamber from Republicans in Tuesday's elections.Pelosi recently f...

President Laura Chinchilla took on the public banking system this week, drawing a sharp defense from Central Bank president Rodrigo Bolaños. She thinks Ticos are paying too high of an interest rate. Meanwhile, the Central Bank announced Wednesday that interest rates would remain unchanged at 10.25%, slightly lower than the private banks' 10.5%. The President, incensed at the public banks for...

By Peter Henderson SAN FRANCISCO | Sun Nov 4, 2012 7:11am EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Sloppy signatures on mail-in ballots might prove to be the hanging chads of the 2012 election. As Republicans and Democrats raise alarms about potential voter fraud and voter suppression, mail-in ballots have boomed as an uncontroversial form of convenient, in...

By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON | Sun Nov 4, 2012 1:23am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - This year's presidential election could be among the closest in U.S. history, as President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are locked in a virtual dead heat. For a growing number of voters, however, it will not be much of a contest at all. Roughly 22 percent o...

By Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick DUBUQUE, Iowa | Sat Nov 3, 2012 7:35pm EDT DUBUQUE, Iowa (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential race, which has hinged for months on a handful of states, converged on one city in Iowa on Saturday as President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney each made a last-minute appeal for support before Tuesday's ele...

By Mary Slosson SACRAMENTO | Sat Nov 3, 2012 5:46pm EDT SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California Democrats are hoping to leverage new state electoral rules to garner a veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature come Election Day, a possibility that their Republican opponents worry could lead to tax abuses. Tuesday's general election will test the...

Sat Nov 3, 2012 4:28pm EDT (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Saturday said he has ordered county clerks to open their offices on Saturday and Sunday to allow early voting for residents affected by superstorm Sandy. The storm devastated the eastern part of the state, leaving at least 22 dead and more than 1 million customers still without power jus...

By Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick DUBUQUE, Iowa/MENTOR, Ohio | Sat Nov 3, 2012 4:15pm EDT DUBUQUE, Iowa/MENTOR, Ohio (Reuters) - After months spent rallying their most reliable supporters, Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama reached out on Saturday to the small sliver of voters who remain undecided in the final days before Tu...

By Matt Spetalnick MENTOR, Ohio | Sat Nov 3, 2012 3:24pm EDT MENTOR, Ohio (Reuters) - President Barack Obama touted his administration's auto industry bailout in the U.S. industrial heartland on Saturday as he launched a final hectic weekend of campaigning in states critical to winning next week's closely fought election. With just three days lef...

Although United Nations High Commission on Refugees representative in Costa Rica, Roberto Mignone recognizes this country as "exceptional" in treatment of refugees from other countries, it turns down half of all such applications. Those rejected, however, can apply for another immigration status. Of 18,478 seeking refugee status in the past decade, Immigration has rejected 9,066. according to l...

Granted, National Liberation Party doesn't win all the elections, but its races for presidential nomination are always spirited. The run up to the 2014 elections keeps up the tradition, with San Jose Mayor Johnny Araya taking a commanding lead in the latest poll. Ex-President Jose Maria Figueres, according to the Unimer poll, is tied for second with Former Minister of the Presidency Rodrigo Ari...

By David Alexander and Jennifer Dobner WASHINGTON/SALT LAKE CITY | Fri Nov 2, 2012 8:28pm EDT WASHINGTON/SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - While neither of the candidates in next week's presidential election was in the military, Mitt Romney's age - he was eligible to serve in Vietnam - has raised questions during the campaign about why he didn't serve a...

By Jeff Mason HILLIARD, Ohio | Fri Nov 2, 2012 7:08pm EDT HILLIARD, Ohio (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney made late pitches in the political battlegrounds of the upper Midwest on Friday, a region likely to decide the winner in next week's closely fought election for the White House. In dueling campaign appearances in ...

By Gabriel Debenedetti Fri Nov 2, 2012 5:22pm EDT (Reuters) - As early voting proceeds across the country ahead of Tuesday's presidential election, voters over 50 continue to be more likely than most to prefer Republican challenger Mitt Romney to President Barack Obama and to favor Romney's position on two issues that directly affect the elderly: healthca...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 2, 2012 3:26pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives has experienced three consecutive "wave" elections in which more than 20 seats changed hands, with the peak coming in 2010 when Republicans took control after gaining 63 seats. On Tuesday, voters will elect the 113th Congress. Even though public approval of Congre...

By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 2, 2012 3:23pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are dead even on a national level but Obama holds a slight edge in three of the most hotly contested states in Tuesday's election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. Obama leads Romney among likely v...

By Jeff Mason HILLIARD, Ohio | Fri Nov 2, 2012 1:54pm EDT HILLIARD, Ohio (Reuters) - President Barack Obama blasted Republican rival Mitt Romney on Friday for running an ad that falsely suggested Jeep was moving production to China, accusing his opponent of stretching the truth to scare voters in the final days of the campaign. Romney told a crow...

By Jason Lange WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 2, 2012 1:07pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers stepped up hiring in October and a small increase in the jobless rate was due to more workers restarting their job hunts, a hopeful sign for a lackluster economy that has been a drag on President Barack Obama's re-election bid. Employers added 171,000 peo...

By Steve Holland MILWAUKEE | Fri Nov 2, 2012 12:54pm EDT MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney offered his closing argument to voters on Friday, asking Americans to decide whether they want more of the same from President Barack Obama or "real change" by electing him on Tuesday. Making a last-minute foray into Wiscon...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 2, 2012 12:43pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has renewed 15-year-old U.S. sanctions on Sudan, acknowledging that Khartoum has resolved disputes with South Sudan but warning that Darfur and other conflicts remain serious obstacles to normal ties, the State Department said on Friday. "The ongoing conflict in Southe...

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 2, 2012 12:26pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An encouraging October jobs report may give President Barack Obama an 11th-hour campaign boost, but perhaps more importantly it denies Republican challenger Mitt Romney an opportunity to put an exclamation point on his argument that Obama has failed to turn aroun...

WASHINGTON | Fri Nov 2, 2012 12:11pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney said on Friday the uptick in the U.S. employment rate to 7.9 percent shows the economy continues to struggle. "Today's increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill," said Romney, who has made his...

By Colleen Jenkins ATLANTA | Fri Nov 2, 2012 11:31am EDT ATLANTA (Reuters) - Democratic claims that a large number of Americans could be prevented from voting because of photo identification laws are probably overstated based on evidence from Georgia and Indiana, the two states where the laws have been in place for multiple elections, Reuters fou...