Barack H. Obama won the popular vote with 51.0% (65,899,660 votes), ahead of Mitt Romney with 47.2% (60,932,152 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 3.8 percentage points (4,967,508 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Democratic lead of 3.8 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 3.4 points toward Republicans.
129,133,719 votes were counted in this race, for 29 candidates or options.
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