WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has been re-elected to a second term, defeating Republican Mitt Romney in a hard-fought race in which the economy was the dominant issue.     

Voters decided to give Obama another four years of stewardship over an economy that is slowly recovering from the recession.     

Obama captured battleground states including Ohio, Iowa and Colorado on his way to the 270 electoral votes he needed.     

Romney unsuccessfully campaigned on the theme that his business background gave him the experience needed to guide the nation out of tough economic times.     

Obama will again be dealing with a divided Congress. Democrats maintained control of the Senate and Republicans likely will again control the House. Among the most pressing matters is the so-called fiscal cliff of tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to hit in January. Economists have warned that if they aren't averted, the nation could face another recession.

ATLANTA (AP) - Georgians have approved a constitutional amendment that would allow a new state board to issue charters for private operators to run independent public schools.

With 94 percent of precincts reporting, 1.89 million voters - or 58 percent - supported the proposal. A total of 1.37 million or 42 percent opposed it.

Gov. Nathan Deal and school choice advocates pitched the amendment as a way to give Georgia families more educational options. State Superintendent John Barge led educator groups in opposition, saying it would lessen local control and siphon public money away from existing schools.

Control over charters now rests mostly with local school boards, though operators who are denied can appeal to the state Board of Education. Georgia has about 200 charter schools already. They will not be immediately affected by the outcome.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) - Commissioner Joe Allen will keep his seat on the Bibb County Commission for one more year.

Allen, a Democrat, beat Republican challenger Robert Abbott for the District 4 seat.  The incumbent commissioner received 70% of the vote to Abbott's 30%.

"Winning this race is really meaningful, because I've done a lot of different things this year that I've never done before, and I want this one year to be the best year of all the years I've been on the board," says Allen.  "There's a lot of things I want to see done like (at) Lake Tobosofkee.  I want to be able to work with this board that we have and continue to make strides (with) the new government that will take place in 2014.  I want to make sure that people are represented in my district as well as all of Bibb County."

Commissioner Allen ran a completely different campaign this time.

He didn't put out one campaign sign, saying he hoped his name would pull him through.

He says he won't run for commissioner again when his seat opens back up but wouldn't rule out running for another office within the newly consolidated government.