A looming Hurricane Sandy has brought a new level of uncertainty onto the 2012 presidential campaign trail, which will also serve to alter early voting opportunities just a mere nine days before Election Day.

Looking to garner support among women voters, President Barack Obama went on a political attack against Mitt Romney on Thursday. The Democrat criticized Romney for his support of Richard Mourdock, a candidate for the Senate in Indiana who controversially stated that pregnancies resulting from rape are "something God intended."

With a little more than one week before Election Day, a handful of swing states are quickly taking center stage in the presidential race and are likely to become the deciding factor in who wins the White House. Most of those states are still hotly contested and could go to either President Barack Obama or Republican nominee Mitt Romney on Nov. 6.

The president has widened his lead on electoral projections over the last few days. Enough states have become Obama territory on Electoral College map projections that if the forecast holds up, Obama will win a second term as president of the United States.