to move up and down
Americans line up early to issue verdict on Obama, Romney after most expensive election campaign in history
Americans started to vote in a presidential election on Tuesday with polls showing President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney neck-and-neck in a race that will be decided in a handful of states.
Polling stations opened across the eastern United States and parts of the Midwest as dawn broke. At least 120 million Americans were expected to vote on giving Obama a second term or replacing him with Romney.
Stay home, America! Canada calls the election
If Canadians were electing the next U.S. president, these polling results would have Mitt Romney holding his head in his hands. In almost every measure of polling demographic, including having the winner live next door, Barack Obama is a clear favourite. The data comes from a Forum Research Inc. poll – conducted for the National Post – of 1,735 randomly selected residents of Canada aged 18 or older.
Election century
The defining issues of the U.S. elections in 1908 and 2008 charted similar territory — a banking crisis, a loss of consumer confidence and a plummeting economy. With less than a month to go before the 2012 election, the National Post looks back at a century of election results and the issues of the day. (Graphic by Richard Johnson/National Post)
Just like a real candidate: Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC raises over $1-million
Stephen Colbert’s U.S. presidential aspirations may not be serious, but his fundraising is. The late-night television comedian’s Super PAC announced on Tuesday that it has raised more than $1-million.
Shauna Polk, treasurer of Colbert’s Super Political Action Committee “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow,” said in a filing with the Federal Election Commission that, as of Jan. 30, the group’s donations totaled $1,023,121.24.
“Stephen Colbert, President of ABTT, has asked that I quote him as saying, ’Yeah! How you like me now, F.E.C? I’m rolling seven digits deep! I got 99 problems but a non-connected independent-expenditure only committee ain’t one,”’ Polk said in the filing. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
To get a closer look at this graphic, click here.
Putin accuses U.S. of inciting Russian protests: Clinton gave ‘a signal’
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Thursday of stirring up protests against his 12-year rule and said foreign countries were spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence Russian elections.
In his first public remarks about daily demonstrations over allegations that Sunday’s election was slanted to favour his ruling party, Putin said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had encouraged Kremlin opponents by criticizing the vote.
“She set the tone for some opposition activists, gave them a signal, they heard this signal and started active work,” Putin told supporters as he laid out plans for his campaign to return to the presidency in a March election. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)
Egyptians voted on Monday in the first election since a popular revolt toppled Hosni Mubarak’s one-man rule, showing new-found faith in the ballot box that may sweep long-banned Islamists into parliament even as army generals cling to power
Egyptian voters crowd polls for ‘first real election in 30 years’
Egyptians voted on Monday in their first election since a popular revolt ousted Hosni Mubarak, amid fears the generals who replaced the deposed leader would try to cling on to power.
In the nine months since the end of Mubarak’s 30-year rule, political change in Egypt has faltered, with the military apparently more focused on preserving its power and privilege than on fostering any democratic transformation.
Frustration erupted last week into violent protests that cost 42 lives and forced the army council to promise civilian rule by July.
“Aren’t the army officers the ones who protected us during the revolution? What do those slumdogs in Tahrir want?” one woman asked loudly at a polling station in Cairo’s Nasr City.
“Those in Tahrir are young men and women who are the reason why a 61-year-old man like me voted in a parliamentary election for the first time in his life today,” one man replied politely. (Photo: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images)
Live coverage: Ontario votes
Will McGuinty’s Liberals hang on to a majority, or is Canada’s most populous province in for Tory rule or a minority? Get analysis and results with the Post’s live coverage of Ontario election night.
Graphic: The flow of political donations in Ontario
Unlike the federal government and some provincial governments, Ontario has not banned corporations or unions from donating to political parties. The province allows donors to give up to $9,300 to a party each year, well above the federal limit of $1,100 for individual donations. Companies can exceed the provincial contribution limits by donating through subsidiaries that are legally separate from their parent company, while unions can rack up significant spending by donating through their local bargaining units. Of the more than $14-million that Ontario’s three main parties have collected in pre-campaign donations of at least $100 this year alone, nearly $9-million came from corporations and unions. Here, the National Post’s Tamsin McMahon analyzes some of the biggest spenders:
How Russian politics is different…
Women supporting Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev hold small baskets with strawberries to distribute after they answer questions about on Russia’s political issues, in central Moscow, Sept. 1, 2011. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)
Infographic: How Canada voted
Canadians elected a historic government to office on Monday, handing the Conservatives their long-coveted majority and promoting the NDP to Official Opposition status for the first time ever.
