November 6, 2012 2016 → 2,827,709 2,661,437 Date 6 November 2012 | 18 0 50.67% 47.69% Location Ohio, United States | |
 | ||
Obama—40-50%
Obama—50-60%
Obama—60-70% Romney—40-50%
Romney—50-60%
Romney—60-70%
Romney—70-80% | ||
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.
Contents
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%.
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. Some experts believe that the popularity of the auto industry bailout put in place under President Obama helped him take the state. As of February 2013, there are nineteen cases of voter fraud being investigated in Hamilton County; in March 2013, three individuals were charged with voter fraud, with one individual alleged to have voted six times. 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.
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
The 2012 Ohio Republican primary took place on March 6, 2012.
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.
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. Romney also won areas such as Akron, Youngstown, Dayton and Columbus. These and other highly populated counties would eventually go to Obama in November.
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.
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.