Houston (US), Nov 7 (IANS): A line of Texans snaked around a red brick school, one of 776 polling places in or around the nation's fourth largest city of Houston, to cast their votes in the 2012 US presidential elections. The sentiment and mood among the voters indicated this was a tight race for incumbent President Barrack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney.

"I'm not voting for Obama. I hate to say I'm voting for Romney, but I've got to vote for somebody," said Lee Kemick, 48, who is in sales.

"I believe Obama inherited a terrible situation with the economy and then did nothing to make it better."

Personally, he said, he is worse off today than when Obama took office four years ago, reported Xinhua.

"Whoever heads the new administration, I'd like to see them create jobs for middle-class people and by middle class, I mean people making $60,000 to $100,000," Kemick said.

David Campbell, a graphic designer, said he voted for Democrats in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

"I believe the country is heading in a better direction than when Obama first took office." The US economy is recovering, although slowly, he added.

Campbell said his own personal finances are better than four years ago, hoping a re-elected Obama administration will keep the economy on an upward path.

Oil field service project director Connie La Blanc is a supporter of Republican Romney.

She said she believes Romney will make the changes necessary to bring the country to a full recovery.

"The economy really needs help," said La Blanc, 52. "I'm not better off than I was four years ago, when I didn't vote for Obama. I didn't want him then and I don't want him now."

About 30 million people have cast their ballots in 34 states and the District of Columbia through the early voting process.

Votes were close in Harris County that includes Houston during the presidential election in 2008, when Obama and his vice presidential running mate Joe Biden received 590,982 votes, or 50.45 percent, while the Republican challengers, John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin received 571,883 votes, or 48.82 percent.

Final national opinion polls before Nov 6 also suggested that 2012 will be a tight race, with Obama getting 48 percent and Romney 47 percent of likely voters in the NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll; Obama at 49 percent and Romney at 48 percent in a Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll; and Obama with 48 percent to Romney's 45 percent in the Pew Research Center poll released Sunday.

US TV networks have projected Obama to win the "deep blue" Vermont and garner swing states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin with 30 electoral votes while Romney is projected to win the "deep red" Kentucky, Indiana, South Carolina and West Virginia with 33 electoral votes.

Other swing states remain too close to call, including Virginia, Florida and Ohio.

A candidate needs to win 270 of the total 538 electoral votes to win the presidency.