Barack H. Obama won the popular vote with 52.9% (69,498,459 votes), ahead of John McCain with 45.6% (59,948,283 votes). Presidents are chosen by the Electoral College, so the popular vote winner is not always the winner of the election.
The margin between the first two candidates was 7.3 percentage points (9,550,176 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Democratic lead of 7.3 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 9.7 points toward Democrats. The winning party changed.
131,412,437 votes were counted in this race, for 22 candidates or options.
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