Obama strong in swing states as economy improves

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama — with the help of a slowly improving U.S. economy — is gaining ground in many of the 14 states where the presidential contest with Republican Mitt Romney hangs in the balance.

Recent polls have shown Obama gaining an edge over Romney in several so-called swing states. Voters in those states do not reliably support the candidate of either the Republican or Democratic party.

Their importance derives not only from their unpredictability but also from the U.S. presidential election process, which depends on the electoral college and not the popular vote.

In 2000, for example, Democrat and former Vice President Al Gore won the most popular votes nationwide, but former President George W. Bush won the presidency because he rolled up more electoral college votes.

That race finally was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in a hugely controversial ruling that votes in Florida, which initially showed Bush as winner, would not be recounted statewide.

That gave Bush all of Florida's 27 electors and the presidency.

The electoral college is a product of the earliest years of American history and was put in place to protect the interests of small-population states.

It was a compromise among the founding fathers, who wrote the U.S. Constitution. Some wanted the president chosen by Congress, others wanted the popular vote to determine the election.

Under the compromise, the electoral college grants the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in each state the number of electors allocated to that state.

Each state has one elector for each member of the House of Representatives. The number of House members is allocated according to population, with the smallest-population states having only one representative.

But each state, regardless of population, has two senators and,