With less than a week before Americans cast their votes and find out who will be their next president, the latest swing-state polls show President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in a close race in the country's most crucial states.

These key nine states are the most competitive and might just end up deciding the fate of the election.

In Ohio, the presidential candidates are tied with 49 percent of votes each, according to Rasmussen Reports on Friday. The telephone survey of 750 likely Ohio voters was conducted on Nov. 1 and also showed that 2 percent voted for a third-party candidate and 1 percent were undecided. Early last week, Romney has a slight lead over Obama in Ohio but recently they have been only within two percentage points of one another, according to the report.

Ohio offers 18 Electoral College votes and Obama won over the state in the 2008 election by a 52 to 47 percent margin. In their own calculations of polling averages, Politico also revealed that Romney and Obama are very close in the state of Ohio: Obama has 49.3 percent of Ohio votes and Romney has 46.4 percent.

The nine swing-states, or "most competitive states," are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Caroline, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to Politico.

Also revealed on Friday by Rasmussen was a 52 to 47 percent margin between the candidates in Michigan, with Obama in the lead. A telephone survey, also of 750 likely voters, was conducted on Nov. 1. One percent voted for a third-party candidate and 1 percent was undecided.

Politico confirmed that the race for the most swing-state votes will be tight until Election Day, which is Nov. 6. Their average showed that Obama will receive 53 of the total swing-state votes while Romney will collect 57. However, a Gallup report released on Oct. 31 revealed that the majority of American's already have their minds made up about who will win the presidential election. In a survey, voters were asked, "Regardless of whom you support, and trying to be as objective as possible, who do you think will win the election in November?"

The names of Obama and Romney were rotated in the question, meaning some voters heard Obama's name first and some heard Romney's first. The survey was conducted from Oct. 27 - 28 and Gallup reported that 54 percent of Americans believed that Obama will be re-elected on Tuesday, and 34 percent believed Romney would win. Eleven percent had no opinion.