14 0 58.38% 40.59% | 2,125,101 1,477,568 Start date November 6, 2012 | |
The 2012 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 6, 2012 as part of the 2012 General Election in which all 50 states plus The District of Columbia participated. New Jersey voters chose 14 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.
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Due to the difficulty of getting to polling places because of the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, voters who were displaced were allowed to vote electronically. Officials were not prepared for the 15 minutes that it took to validate each request, and were deluged by voters who were not displaced asking to vote electronically, so voting was extended until Friday, November 9, at 8 PM. Requests had to be submitted by 5 PM.
New Jersey was won by President Obama with 58.38% of the vote to Romney's 40.59%, a 17.79% margin of victory. New Jersey was one of just six states to swing in President Obama's favor between 2008 and 2012, giving him the largest vote share for a Democratic presidential nominee in the state since the 1964 Democratic landslide.
General election
Candidate Ballot Access:
Democratic primary
Incumbent Barack Obama ran unopposed in the Democratic primary held on June 5, 2012. He received 283,673 votes according to the Secretary of State, though county clerks' websites report write-in votes as well. The state's 172 delegates voted unanimously for Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Republican primary
The Republican primary occurred on June 5, 2012.
New Jersey sent fifty delegates to the Republican National Convention on August 5, 2012. All fifty delegates were awarded by a winner-take-all statewide vote. New Jersey Republican Party rules obligate and require the delegates to cast their vote for the winner of the primary on the first three ballots at the convention.