The Ohio election results are rolling in and President Barack Obama has an early lead over his GOP challenger, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. With about 3.8 percent of the precincts reporting, the president leads with 56.6 percent of the votes to Governor Romney’s 42.1 percent of the votes.

The Ohio election results are also in for the state’s Senate race, Democrat Sherrod Brown leads Republican Josh Mandel with 57.5 percent of the votes to his challenger’s 38.2 percent of the votes.

Ohio is a swing state in the 2012 presidential election, meaning it’s a state where no candidate has a significant advantage in securing that state’s electoral college votes.

If history is to be believed, Ohio is a must-win state for Governor Romney on his path to the presidency. No Republican, in modern times, has gone on to win the presidency without winning Ohio.

The importance of Ohio was evident in the campaign activities of both candidates in the final moments of the presidential race, as Vice President Joe Biden made a surprise stop in the Buckeye State. CNN reports that Air Force Two landed at a Cleveland airport Tuesday for a campaign stop at Landmark Restaurant. The vice president was en route from Delaware, before joining President Obama in Chicago.

Air Force Two was seen on the tarmac at the Cleveland airport along with Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s plane and Mr. Romney’s plane. The Washington Post notes that this is the third times in three days that the vice president’s plane and Governor’s Romney plane have crossed paths on the same tarmac.

“They told me they were going to–,” Mr. Biden said. “I mean, when we landed they said, said they were there.”

“I thought they said that it was panic that we were campaigning today,” Romney senior adviser Stuart Stevens told reporters, according to The Washington Post. ”How about that?”

The latest Ohio poll, conducted by the University of Cincinnati, showed President Obama with a slim lead over Governor Romney. The president hauled in 50.0 percent of the votes among likely voters in the Buckeye State, while Mr. Romney pulled in 48.5 percent of the votes. The president’s lead, however, was within the poll’s margin of error. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Eighteen electoral votes are up for grabs in the Buckeye State. The Ohio election results will continue to roll in over the next several hours.