United States presidential election in Ohio, 2012

United States presidential election in Ohio, 2012
November 6, 2012

 
Nominee Barack Obama Mitt Romney
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Massachusetts
Running mate Joe Biden Paul Ryan
Electoral vote 18 0
Popular vote 2,827,709 2,661,437
Percentage 50.67% 47.69%
County Results
President before election

Barack Obama
Democratic

 Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

The 2012 United States presidential election in Ohio took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 General Election in which all 50 states plus The District of Columbia participated. Ohio voters chose 18 electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan. This continued the streak of having the winner of the overall election winning Ohio as the state has not voted for a losing candidate since Richard Nixon in 1960.

President Obama won the popular vote in Ohio with 50.67% of the vote over Mitt Romney in second place at 47.69%, a Democratic victory margin of 2.98%.[1]

General Election

Throughout the general election campaign Ohio was considered a key battleground state and Barack Obama and Mitt Romney campaigned extensively in the state.[2] Some experts believe that the popularity of the auto industry bailout put in place under President Obama helped him take the state.[2][3] As of February 2013, there are nineteen cases of voter fraud being investigated in Hamilton County;[4] in March 2013, three individuals were charged with voter fraud, with one individual alleged to have voted six times.[5] However, minus these questionable votes, assuming they went to Obama, the outcome of the Ohio race is not affected as President Obama still wins Ohio by over 166,000 votes.

Results

President Obama won Ohio over Governor Mitt Romney. Ohio was too close to call for a decent portion of the night. At 11:12 P.M. EST, MSNBC called Ohio for Obama. All major news networks soon followed suit. Giving Ohio to Obama gave him enough electoral votes to win. At first the Romney campaign contested the call, but conceded at about 1:00 A.M. Obama's victory in Ohio can be attributed to several factors. Obama only won 17 out of Ohio's 88 counties. However those 17 counties combined account for more than half of the states total population. Romney did do well in most rural areas of the state, particularly in western Ohio. Romney also won all but one county in the Appalachia region (Athens) home of Athens, Ohio and Ohio University. Romney also did well in the northern Columbus suburbs. For Romney, most of his wins came from smaller populated counties. Obama won in Hamilton County home of increasingly Democratic Cincinnati. Obama also did well in Lucas County, and Franklin County, home of Toledo and Columbus respectively. Obama gained significant support in southern Ohio where many of the counties where a majority voted against him four years prior, became more competitive as Romney only won by pluralities in five of them. Most notably, Pike County became the closest county in the entire nation where Romney came out on top by one vote. Obama also did well in the Akron-Youngstown area, and the auto belt. However, the main source of Obama's victory was in Cuyahoga County home of Cleveland. Obama won statewide by almost three percent.

United States presidential election in Ohio, 2012[1]
Party Candidate Running mate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Barack Obama Joe Biden 2,827,709 50.67% 18
Republican Mitt Romney Paul Ryan 2,661,437 47.69% 0
Libertarian Gary Johnson Jim Gray 49,493 0.89% 0
Green Jill Stein Cheri Honkala 18,573 0.33% 0
Independent Richard Duncan Ricky Johnson 12,502 0.22% 0
Constitution Virgil Goode Jim Clymer 8,152 0.15% 0
Socialist Stewart Alexander Alex Mendoza 2,944 0.05% 0
Others 37 0.00% 0
Totals 5,580,847 100.00% 18
Voter turnout (registered voters) 69.87%

By county[6]

CountyObama%Obama#Romney%Romney#Others%Others#Total
Adams35.86%3,97661.95%6,8652.24%24811,089
Allen37.14%17,91461.19%29,5021.70%82048,236
Ashland34.04%8,28163.83%15,5192.18%53024,300
Ashtabula55.27%23,80342.52%18,2982.23%96243,063
Athens66.24%18,30730.93%8,5432.85%78827,638
Auglaize24.91%5,83173.38%17,1691.73%40523,405
Belmont44.85%14,15653.11%16,7582.06%65031,564
Brown36.65%7,10761.49%11,9161.90%36919,392
Butler36.66%62,38861.82%105,1761.54%2,627170,191
Carroll41.62%5,39655.36%7,1773.02%39212,965
Champaign39.10%7,82659.21%11,8521.69%33820,016
Clark48.32%30,02250.08%31,1161.61%99862,136
Clermont31.41%29,33466.95%62,5271.64%1,53193,392
Clinton31.36%5,53466.52%11,7402.12%37417,648
Columbiana42.93%19,35154.97%24,7782.11%94945,078
Coshocton43.98%6,84153.44%8,3122.58%40215,555
Crawford37.55%7,20760.24%11,5612.21%42419,192
Cuyahoga69.32%447,27329.55%190,6601.03%7,329645,262
Darke26.65%6,61071.53%17,7451.82%45224,807
Defiance41.92%7,43855.99%9,9352.09%37117,744
Delaware37.50%36,11761.23%58,9661.27%1,21996,302
Erie54.80%20,96943.53%16,6551.67%63838,262
Fairfield41.14%28,83157.27%40,1341.59%1,11470,079
Fayette38.17%4,07560.47%6,4561.37%14610,677
Franklin60.11%325,65438.38%207,9411.51%8,156541,751
Fulton42.35%8,79055.50%11,5212.15%44620,757
Gallia35.99%4,42761.75%7,5962.27%27912,302
Geauga38.49%19,29560.06%30,1041.45%72650,125
Greene38.27%31,02860.05%48,6831.68%1,36481,075
Guernsey44.05%7,22653.72%8,8112.23%36616,403
Hamilton52.50%219,92746.15%193,3261.35%4,512421,998
Hancock34.89%12,19263.19%22,0771.92%67134,940
Hardin36.94%4,48760.40%7,3372.66%32312,147
Harrison41.36%2,89556.24%3,9362.40%1686,999
Henry39.56%5,51358.20%8,1112.25%31313,937
Highland33.63%5,77264.29%11,0322.08%35717,161
Hocking48.30%6,01049.43%6,1502.27%28212,442
Holmes22.62%2,56875.41%8,5631.97%22411,355
Huron44.33%10,67353.25%12,8212.42%58324,077
Jackson38.44%4,96559.24%7,6512.32%30012,916
Jefferson46.28%14,96051.75%16,7291.97%63832,327
Knox36.77%10,15461.09%16,8732.14%59127,618
Lake48.33%55,21950.02%57,1501.66%1,895114,264
Lawrence41.40%10,45456.91%14,3711.69%42725,252
Licking41.67%32,26456.32%43,6042.01%1,55577,423
Logan33.06%6,78964.88%13,3232.06%42320,535
Lorain56.39%78,11541.94%58,0951.66%2,306138,516
Lucas64.34%129,22933.91%68,1001.75%3,521200,850
Madison38.86%6,70059.25%10,2151.89%32517,240
Mahoning63.20%74,34635.46%41,7121.34%1,571117,629
Marion45.14%11,93352.73%13,9382.13%56226,433
Medina42.59%37,84155.67%49,4641.74%1,54488,849
Meigs39.19%3,91157.94%5,7822.87%2869,979
Mercer21.78%4,60976.59%16,2071.63%34521,161
Miami31.29%15,73166.92%33,6501.79%90050,281
Monroe44.59%3,00752.50%3,5402.91%1966,743
Montgomery50.73%128,98347.66%121,1881.61%4,095254,266
Morgan45.88%2,77251.90%3,1362.22%1346,042
Morrow36.55%5,78061.10%9,6622.35%37115,813
Muskingum45.41%16,32752.36%18,8262.23%80135,954
Noble36.18%2,08260.78%3,4983.04%1755,755
Ottawa51.12%11,21447.06%10,3231.82%39921,936
Paulding38.54%3,43558.89%5,2482.57%2298,912
Perry46.73%6,85751.10%7,4982.17%31814,673
Pickaway39.82%9,33558.50%13,7131.68%39523,443
Pike48.87%5,49049.27%5,5351.85%20811,233
Portage51.44%38,08246.56%34,4652.00%1,48274,029
Preble30.61%6,00567.29%13,2022.10%41219,619
Putnam23.38%4,23874.83%13,5631.79%32518,126
Richland38.93%21,78559.08%33,0571.99%1,11255,954
Ross47.98%13,89550.35%14,5821.67%48428,961
Sandusky49.78%14,03547.85%13,4912.36%66628,192
Scioto48.07%14,43250.04%15,0231.89%56830,023
Seneca44.50%10,96252.88%13,0252.62%64624,633
Shelby26.22%6,06572.20%16,7001.57%36423,129
Stark49.28%89,42348.81%88,5811.90%3,348176,620
Summit56.73%147,14641.91%108,7001.37%3,543259,389
Trumbull60.23%59,44638.04%37,5451.73%1,71298,703
Tuscarawas43.95%17,51653.74%21,4202.31%91939,855
Union34.26%8,54663.92%15,9471.82%45424,947
Van Wert31.63%1,76266.83%3,7231.54%865,571
Vinton44.51%2,38252.28%2,7983.21%1725,352
Warren29.54%31,90769.09%74,6261.37%1,475108,008
Washington36.67%7,04961.34%11,7922.00%38419,225
Wayne38.36%18,93259.67%29,4501.97%97449,356
Williams40.76%7,04557.06%9,8632.19%37817,286
Wood50.99%31,59646.79%28,9972.22%1,37461,967
Wyandot38.64%3,96259.04%6,0542.32%23810,254

Democratic primary

The Democratic primary was held on March 6, 2012, the same day as the Republican primary. Incumbent President Barack Obama ran unopposed, and thus won all 151 of the state's delegates.

Republican primary

Ohio Republican primary, 2012
March 6, 2012 (2012-03-06)

 
Candidate Mitt Romney Rick Santorum
Home state Massachusetts Pennsylvania
Delegate count 38 25
Popular vote 456,513 446,255
Percentage 37.9% 37.1%
 
Candidate Newt Gingrich Ron Paul
Home state Georgia Texas
Delegate count 0 0
Popular vote 175,556 111,238
Percentage 14.6% 9.2%
Ohio results by county
  Mitt Romney
  Rick Santorum

The 2012 Ohio Republican primary took place on March 6, 2012.[7]

Ohio has 66 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Three party officials (also known as "superdelegates") are not bound by the primary result. Forty-eight delegates are generally awarded winner-take-all by Congressional district. Another 15 delegates are awarded to the candidate who gets an outright majority statewide, or are allocated proportionately among candidates winning at least 20% of the vote if no candidate wins a majority.[8]

Ohio Republican primary, 2012[9]
Candidate Votes Percentage Estimated national delegates
Mitt Romney 460,831 37.9% 38
Rick Santorum 448,580 37.1% 25
Newt Gingrich 177,183 14.6% 0
Ron Paul 113,256 9.3% 0
Rick Perry 7,539 0.6% 0
Jon Huntsman, Jr. 6,490 0.5% 0
Unprojected delegates 7
Totals 1,213,879 100.0% 66

Despite an early lead in the vote count and having won most counties, Santorum's lead was reduced and overcome by Romney as Hamilton and Cuyahoga County results came in.[10] Romney also won areas such as Akron, Youngstown, Dayton and Columbus. These and other highly populated counties would eventually go to Obama in November.

Key:Withdrew
prior to contest

Notes:

1. In the six congressional districts where Rick Santorum submitted only a partial slate of district delegates and district alternates by the late December 2011 deadline, he will be automatically awarded only the number of delegates he submitted, assuming he wins the particular district. The Ohio Republican Party said on March 2, 2012, that the remaining delegates in such districts will be "considered unbound" until a panel composed of three members of the Ohio GOP's central committee decides which campaign (if any) is permitted to appoint such delegates.[11]

2. In three congressional districts (OH-6, OH-9 and OH-13), Rick Santorum did not make the district-specific portion of the ballot.

3. In every district, each of the six candidates listed above appears on the "at-large" portion of the ballot. The results of the at-large ballot will determine the allocation of fifteen national convention delegates.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Ohio Decides 2012 – Candidates for President". Ohio Secretary of State.
  2. 1 2 "Ohio Working Class May Offer Key to Obama's Re-election". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ "How Obama Took The Battleground States". NPR.
  4. ↑ Emily Maxwell (6 February 2013). "Poll worker accused of voter fraud in Hamilton County speaks out". WCPO. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
    "Possible Ohio voter fraud investigation heats up". San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. 6 February 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  5. ↑ Eric Shawn (11 March 2013). "Cincinnati poll worker charged with voting half dozen times in November". Fox News. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
    "Nun, Poll Worker, Widower Charged With Voter Fraud". WKRC. Sinclair Broadcast Group. 11 March 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  6. ↑ http://www.sos.state.oh.us/elections/Research/electResultsMain/2012Results.aspx
  7. ↑ "Primary and Caucus Printable Calendar". CNN. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  8. ↑ Nate Silver (March 4, 2012). "Romney Could Win Majority of Super Tuesday Delegates". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Secretary of State results". Archived from the original on 2012-07-29. Retrieved 2012-09-21.
  10. ↑ CNN (2012-03-06), Exclusive Super Tuesday Numbers from Hamilton County, retrieved 2016-04-26
  11. ↑ "Ohio delegates". ABC News. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
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