2012 United States presidential election in Maine

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]

2012 United States presidential election in Maine

November 6, 2012

Nominee Barack Obama Mitt Romney Party Democratic Republican Home state Illinois Massachusetts Running mate Joe Biden Paul Ryan Electoral vote 4 0 Popular vote 401,306 292,276 Percentage 56.27% 40.98%

Obama   40-50%   50-60%   60-70% Romney   50-60%

President before election Barack Obama Democratic Elected President Barack Obama Democratic

This is the most recent election when the Democratic candidate won Maine's second congressional district, as well as these counties (all of which comprise that district): Androscoggin County, Aroostook County, Franklin County, Oxford County, Penobscot County, Somerset County, and Washington County.

General Election

Results

2012 United States presidential election in Maine
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	Barack Obama	Joe Biden	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

Results By Congressional District

Barack Obama swept both of Maine's two congressional districts.[2]

District	Obama %	Obama #	Romney %	Romney #	Johnson %	Johnson #	Stein %	Stein #	Representative
1st	59.57%	223,035	38.18%	142,937	1.20%	4,501	1.05%	3,946	Chellie Pingree
2nd	52.94%	177,998	44.38%	149,215	1.44%	4,843	1.24%	4,170	Michael Michaud

By county

County	Obama%	Obama#	Romney%	Romney#	Others%	Others#	Total
Androscoggin	53.62%	28,989	41.12%	22,232	5.26%	2,842	54,063
Aroostook	51.50%	17,777	44.03%	15,196	4.47%	1,543	34,516
Cumberland	61.59%	101,950	34.93%	57,821	3.48%	5,758	165,529
Franklin	55.71%	9,367	37.88%	6,369	6.42%	1,079	16,815
Hancock	56.20%	17,569	39.42%	12,324	4.38%	1,370	31,263
Kennebec	54.29%	35,068	41.05%	26,519	4.66%	3,009	64,596
Knox	58.71%	13,223	36.62%	8,248	4.66%	1,050	22,521
Lincoln	53.88%	11,315	42.37%	8,899	3.75%	787	21,001
Oxford	54.30%	16,330	39.89%	11,996	5.81%	1,748	30,074
Penobscot	49.27%	38,811	46.39%	36,547	4.34%	3,422	78,780
Piscataquis	45.56%	4,149	49.75%	4,530	4.69%	427	9,106
Sagadahoc	55.58%	11,821	39.63%	8,429	4.79%	1,018	21,268
Somerset	48.42%	12,216	46.77%	11,800	4.82%	1,215	25,231
Waldo	52.94%	11,296	42.45%	9,058	4.60%	982	21,336
Washington	48.44%	7,803	46.87%	7,550	4.69%	756	16,109
York	56.22%	61,551	40.10%	43,900	3.68%	4,032	109,483

Democratic caucuses

[data unknown/missing]

Republican caucuses

2012 Maine Republican caucuses

January 29, 2012 – March 3, 2012

Candidate Ron Paul Mitt Romney Home state Texas Massachusetts Delegate count 20 2 Popular vote 2,264 2,381 Percentage 36.2% 38.0%   Candidate Rick Santorum Newt Gingrich Home state Pennsylvania Georgia Delegate count 0 0 Popular vote 1,138 405 Percentage 18.2% 6.5%

Maine results by county   Mitt Romney   Ron Paul   Rick Santorum

The 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.[3] The first caucus was in Waldo County on January 29[4] and the last one in Castine (Hancock County) on March 3.[5] 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.[3][6]

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.[7][8]

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.[9]

Maine Republican caucuses, 2012[10][11][9]
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 [8][12]
							GP [13]	CNN [14]	AP [15]
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

See also

• United States presidential elections in Maine
• 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries
• 2012 Republican Party presidential debates and forums
• Results of the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries

Notes

1. "Maine Secretary of State". Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
2. "State of Maine Certificate of Ascertainment of Electors" (PDF). Retrieved December 18, 2012.
3. "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.
4. "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.
5. "2012 Hancock County Republican Regional Caucus Districts". Hancock County Republican Committee. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
6. "Maine Republican Delegation 2012". The Green Papers. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
7. "Ron Paul Wins Maine". Atlanta Journal Constitution. Archived from the original on May 8, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2012.
8. Sistler, Steve (May 6, 2012). "Ron Paul in Maine: Delegates in hand, but trouble afoot?". The Maine Sunday Telegram.
9. http://www.mainegop.com/mainegop_presprefpoll_022412.pdf
10. "Maine Republican Caucuses". The New York Times. Election 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
11. "Maine Republican Caucuses". USA Today. Election 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
12. "Paul wins majority of delegates from Maine GOP". Associated Press. Election 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
13. The Green Papers, "2012 Maine Republican Caucus" (February 29, 2012). The Green Papers.
14. CNN, "Republican Caucuses" (February 12, 2012). CNN.
15. USA Today, "2012 Maine Republican Caucus" (February 25, 2012). USA Today.

External links

• 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 for 2012 elections in Maine