Presidential Polls Virginia: Swing State is Critical for a Romney Victory; Could Obama Win Virginia Again?

As of the early morning hours of Tuesday, the race for the 13 Electoral Votes is officially on.

The Washington Post posted video footage of people lining up at the polls in the critical swing state of Virginia in the early morning hours today, a state that has been heavily contested in the last month by both the Obama and Romney campaigns in this 2012 presidential election.

Currently, ABC News has no official voting projections for the state as of 11:34 a.m., but that is sure to change in the next few hours as voters flock to cast their ballots.

The final Real Clear Politics polls from Sunday projected Obama to have a very slight 0.3 percent lead ahead of Romney, 48 percent to 47.7 percent. However, leading into the final weeks, Obama and Romney have been head-to-head in the polls, some showing the candidates tied, such as Gravis Marketing and Purple Strategies, while others have given a slight lead to either Obama or Romney. The final poll released Sunday from Rasmussen Reports showed Romney holding a two-point advantage in a poll of 750 likely voters, 50 percent to 48 percent.

For Romney, Virginia is a must-win swing state, and a loss there could very well end his chances to win the presidency. As political analyst Matthew Dowd told ABC News's George Stephanopoulos, with Romney holding a much more narrow path, he would need Virginia and more swing states on the East Coast to win.

Obama won the state from John McCain in 2008 by a 6.3 percent margin, and a win in Virginia would make the president's path to 270 much shorter.

"He's got to sweep all the states that touch the Atlantic Ocean, really, to have a chance in this race," said Dowd. "And I think Virginia is going to tell us a lot. It's going to tell us if this night ends early for Mitt Romney or if we're in for a long night."

Even with a Virginia victory, Romney would have to win in fellow critical swing states Ohio and Wisconsin. Obama victories in both states would put the president within five electoral votes of the magic number 270 Electoral College votes to win, according to ABC's projections.

"That's the situation that Mitt Romney is in. It is he had a very narrow path to an Electoral College victory," Dowd said, adding, "It is as if he has to draw an inside strait in this campaign today in order to win this tonight. He has to do all of those things and the path is still narrow for him to win this."

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