The 2012 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Maine voters chose four 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. Obama and Biden carried Maine with 56.27% of the popular vote to Romney's and Ryan's 40.98%, thus winning the state's four electoral votes.[1]
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As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last election that the Democratic candidate won Maine's second congressional district along with a majority of counties in the state, as well as these counties (all of which comprise that district): Androscoggin, Aroostook, Franklin, Oxford, Penobscot, Somerset, and Washington. This is also the last election in which Maine was decided by double digits.
Caucuses
editDemocratic caucuses
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Republican caucuses
editThe Republican caucuses were held between Sunday, January 29, and Saturday, March 3, at various locations throughout the state of Maine. Presidential preference polls (straw polls) were held at the caucuses, but those polls were not binding on the choices of delegates to the Maine Republican Party convention. The caucuses chose delegates in processes separate from the straw polling.
The state party encouraged all municipal committees to hold their caucuses between February 4 and February 11, although each committee was free to choose a different date.[2] The first caucus was in Waldo County on January 29[3] and the last one in Castine (Hancock County) on March 3.[4] On Saturday, February 11, after 84% of precincts had completed voting, state-party officials announced results of straw polls. The results were revised in a second declaration on February 17 to include previously missing results from several caucuses. Those statewide totals still did not include the caucuses in Washington County, which had been scheduled for February 11 but postponed to February 18 by predictions of bad weather, nor did they include caucuses originally scheduled to occur between February 16 and March 3. The state Republican Party issued a third statewide compilation on February 24, adding all the February 18 caucuses (scheduled and postponed), but not those for February 16 or March 3. All three statewide totals showed former Governor Mitt Romney leading Representative Ron Paul by small margins, with other candidates well behind.[2][5]
At the State Convention held over the weekend of May 5–6, Ron Paul won 20 out of 24 national delegates. One elected delegate, Governor Paul LePage is uncommitted. Of the three delegates qualified by the party offices they already hold, the state party chairman, Charlie Webster is also uncommitted, while the current National Committeeman and Committeewoman are committed to Mitt Romney.[6][7]
Updated results were released by the Maine GOP on February 24. The new table does not show returns from Rome on February 16 or Castine on March 3, but does include returns from the towns listed above for February 18.[8]
| Maine Republican caucuses, 2012[9][10][8] | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes (Feb. 11 count) |
Votes (Feb. 17 count) |
Votes (Feb. 24 count) |
Percent (Feb. 11 count) |
Percent (Feb. 17 count) |
Percent (Feb. 24 count) |
Projected Delegates | Chosen at State Convention [7][11] | ||
| GP[12] | CNN[13] | AP[14] | ||||||||
| Mitt Romney | 2,190 | 2,269 | 2,373 | 39.2% | 39.0% | 38.0% | 10 | 9 | 11 | 0 |
| Ron Paul | 1,996 | 2,030 | 2,258 | 35.7% | 34.9% | 36.1% | 8 | 9 | 10 | 20 |
| Rick Santorum | 989 | 1,052 | 1,136 | 17.7% | 18.1% | 18.2% | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Newt Gingrich | 349 | 391 | 405 | 6.2% | 6.7% | 6.5% | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Others & undecided | 61 | 72 | 78 | 1.1% | 1.2% | 1.2% | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total: | 5,585 | 5,814 | 6,250 | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | ||||||
General election
editPredictions
edit| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Huffington Post[15] | Safe D | November 6, 2012 |
| CNN[16] | Safe D | November 6, 2012 |
| New York Times[17] | Safe D | November 6, 2012 |
| Washington Post[18] | Safe D | November 6, 2012 |
| RealClearPolitics[19] | Lean D | November 6, 2012 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball[20] | Likely D | November 5, 2012 |
| FiveThirtyEight[21] | Solid D | November 6, 2012 |
Results
edit| 2012 United States presidential election in Maine | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic | Barack Obama (incumbent) | Joe Biden (incumbent) | 401,306 | 56.27% | 4 | |
| Republican | Mitt Romney | Paul Ryan | 292,276 | 40.98% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Gary Johnson | Jim Gray | 9,352 | 1.31% | 0 | |
| Green | Jill Stein | Cheri Honkala | 8,119 | 1.14% | 0 | |
| Write-ins | Write-ins | 2,127 | 0.30% | 0 | ||
| Totals | 724,758 | 100.00% | 4 | |||
By county
edit| County | Barack Obama Democratic |
Mitt Romney Republican |
Various candidates Other parties |
Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Androscoggin | 28,989 | 54.84% | 22,232 | 42.06% | 1,641 | 3.10% | 6,757 | 12.78% | 52,862 |
| Aroostook | 17,777 | 52.50% | 15,196 | 44.88% | 887 | 2.62% | 2,581 | 7.62% | 33,860 |
| Cumberland | 101,950 | 62.25% | 57,821 | 35.30% | 4,015 | 2.45% | 44,129 | 26.95% | 163,786 |
| Franklin | 9,367 | 57.53% | 6,369 | 39.12% | 546 | 3.35% | 2,998 | 18.41% | 16,282 |
| Hancock | 17,569 | 57.04% | 12,324 | 40.01% | 906 | 2.95% | 5,245 | 17.03% | 30,799 |
| Kennebec | 35,068 | 55.23% | 26,519 | 41.76% | 1,910 | 3.01% | 8,549 | 13.47% | 63,497 |
| Knox | 13,223 | 59.92% | 8,248 | 37.38% | 596 | 2.70% | 4,975 | 22.54% | 22,067 |
| Lincoln | 11,315 | 54.51% | 8,899 | 42.87% | 543 | 2.62% | 2,416 | 11.64% | 20,757 |
| Oxford | 16,330 | 55.51% | 11,996 | 40.77% | 1,094 | 3.72% | 4,334 | 14.74% | 29,420 |
| Penobscot | 38,811 | 50.20% | 36,547 | 47.28% | 1,948 | 2.52% | 2,264 | 2.92% | 77,306 |
| Piscataquis | 4,149 | 46.33% | 4,530 | 50.59% | 276 | 3.08% | -381 | -4.26% | 8,955 |
| Sagadahoc | 11,821 | 56.85% | 8,429 | 40.54% | 544 | 2.61% | 3,392 | 16.31% | 20,794 |
| Somerset | 12,216 | 49.28% | 11,800 | 47.61% | 771 | 3.11% | 416 | 1.67% | 24,787 |
| Waldo | 11,296 | 53.63% | 9,058 | 43.01% | 707 | 3.36% | 2,238 | 10.62% | 21,061 |
| Washington | 7,803 | 49.27% | 7,550 | 47.68% | 483 | 3.05% | 253 | 1.59% | 15,836 |
| York | 61,551 | 56.96% | 43,900 | 40.63% | 2,606 | 2.41% | 17,651 | 16.33% | 108,057 |
| Total | 401,306 | 56.27% | 292,276 | 40.98% | 19,598 | 2.75% | 109,030 | 15.29% | 713,180 |
By congressional district
editObama won both of Maine's two congressional districts.[22]
| District | Obama | Romney | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 59.97% | 38.18% | Chellie Pingree |
| 2nd | 52.94% | 44.38% | Mike Michaud |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Maine Secretary of State". Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
- ^ a b "Maine G.O.P. 2012 Caucus Information". Maine Republican Party. January 16, 2012. Archived from the original on May 19, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ "Most Waldo County Republicans to caucus on Feb. 4". Waldo VillageSoup. January 27, 2012. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
- ^ "2012 Hancock County Republican Regional Caucus Districts". Hancock County Republican Committee. Retrieved February 11, 2012.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Maine Republican Delegation 2012". The Green Papers. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ "Ron Paul Wins Maine". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on May 8, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ a b Sistler, Steve (May 6, 2012). "Ron Paul in Maine: Delegates in hand, but trouble afoot?". The Maine Sunday Telegram.
- ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 24, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Maine Republican Caucuses". The New York Times. Election 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ "Maine Republican Caucuses". USA Today. Election 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ "Paul wins majority of delegates from Maine GOP". Election 2012. Associated Press. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
- ^ The Green Papers, "2012 Maine Republican Caucus" (February 29, 2012). The Green Papers.
- ^ CNN, "Republican Caucuses" (February 12, 2012). CNN.
- ^ USA Today, "2012 Maine Republican Caucus" (February 25, 2012). USA Today.
- ^ "Huffington Post Election Dashboard". HuffPost. Archived from the original on August 13, 2013.
- ^ "America's Choice 2012 Election Center: CNN Electoral Map". CNN. Archived from the original on January 19, 2013.
- ^ "Election 2012 - The Electoral Map: Building a Path to Victory". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012.
- ^ "2012 Presidential Election Results". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 26, 2012.
- ^ "RealClearPolitics - 2012 Election Maps - Battle for White House". Archived from the original on June 8, 2011.
- ^ "PROJECTION: OBAMA WILL LIKELY WIN SECOND TERM".
- ^ "Nate Silver's political calculations predict 2012 election outcome".
- ^ "State of Maine Certificate of Ascertainment of Electors" (PDF). Retrieved December 18, 2012.
External links
edit- Official website of the Maine Republican Party
- Rules and By Laws of the Party
- County and Town Republican Committees: Many of these sites show the county or town committee's own tally of presidential caucus results.
- Kennebec County Republican Committee (not linked from the state party's site)
- The Green Papers: for Maine
- The Green Papers: Major state elections in chronological order
- Official Results Archived 2014-10-05 at the Wayback Machine for 2012 elections in Maine