2012 United States presidential election in Florida

The 2012 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 6, as part of the 2012 U.S. presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Florida voters chose 29 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, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan.'Obama wint ook in Florida' (in Dutch)

By November 8, the vote counting had still not concluded. However, with much of the remaining vote still coming in was from heavily Democratic areas, Romney's Florida campaign acknowledged that he had lost the state to Obama. In order to certify the election in Florida, the ballots continued to be counted. Both Miami-Dade and Broward County completed their ballot counts on November 8, leaving Palm Beach and Duval counties as the only two that did not have a final count at the end of the day.

Florida required all counties to finish counting by noon Saturday but would not announce an official winner until the votes were certified on November 20. A recount is not done unless the difference is less than 0.5%. At 11 PM EST on November 9, the margin for Obama was 0.86%, with all but one county finished with their counting. On November 10, most major news sources projected Obama to be the winner of Florida's 29 electoral votes. It was the last state to be called in the 2012 presidential election and also the closest.

Despite Tampa having been the site of the 2012 Republican National Convention, Obama ultimately carried Florida with 50.01% of the vote, to Romney's 49.13%, a margin of 0.88%. Having also won the state in 2008, Obama's 2012 victory made him the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 to carry Florida in two consecutive elections, and also marked the first time since 1948 that the state voted Democratic in consecutive elections.

Nonetheless, Obama's margin of victory decreased from 2.81% in 2008. He also lost Flagler and Volusia Counties, which he had won in 2008; he thus became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying the counties since Harry S. Truman in 1948 and the first to do so without carrying the latter since John F. Kennedy in 1960. Florida is also one of only three states that backed Obama twice that would go on to vote against his vice president Joe Biden in 2020, the other two being Iowa and Ohio.

As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last time that a Democratic presidential nominee has carried Florida, or the counties of Jefferson, St. Lucie, and Monroe. This remains the second closest presidential result in the state ever, behind only the 2000 election, and to date, 2012 was the only presidential race since 2000 where Florida's victory margin was less than 1%. Obama's victory in 2012, and that of Bill Nelson in the concurrent U.S. Senate race, was also the last time a Democrat won a federal statewide election in Florida, with the last statewide win coming in 2018.

Primary elections Democratic primary

Republican primary

The Republican primary was held on January 31, 2012. Fifty delegates were at stake, none of them RNC (or super) delegates; it is unclear whether these delegates will be allocated proportionally or winner-take-all. Originally awarded 99 delegates, the Republican National Committee removed half of Florida's delegates because the state committee moved its Republican primary before March 6; the Republican National Committee rules also set the delegate allocation to be proportional because the contest was held before April 1. It is a closed primary. There were 4,063,853 registered Republican voters as of January 3, 2012.

Florida is spread over two time zones, so voting wasn't completed until 7 pm CST/8pm EST.

Significance

In an effort to increase the political importance of their state's primary and receive added media exposure often directed to the early contests, Florida decided to plan its primary ahead of the early contests, a move that violated Republican Party rules and forced early states to move up their contests. Florida announced that their primary would occur on January 31 instead of the expected March; Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina were expected to have their primaries in February but were forced to push their primaries into January, thereby shortening the overall amount of time that each person could campaign. Florida made this move in 2008.

As a result of this calendar violation, Florida was stripped of half of its delegates, awarding only 50 delegates instead of the original 100 delegates.

Dean Cannon, the Republican speaker of the Florida House of Representatives: "My goal all along is for Florida to preserve her place as the fifth spot on the nominating calendar and not to move ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire."

Controversy

According to a Gingrich campaign memo, he planned to challenge the results based on an interpretation of the Republican National Committee's rules that state that no contest can be winner-take-all prior to April 1, 2012. Gingrich would have requested that delegates be divided proportionally, corresponding to the percentage of votes each candidate received. It is not known what result a successful challenge might have had.

General election Predictions SourceRankingAs ofHuffington PostNovember 6, 2012CNNNovember 6, 2012 The New York Times November 6, 2012The Washington PostNovember 6, 2012RealClearPoliticsNovember 6, 2012Sabato's Crystal BallNovember 5, 2012FiveThirtyEightNovember 6, 2012

Results

The final vote count was unknown at noon Friday, November 9, 2012.Broward joins Miami-Dade in completing election count The delay in the final count was caused by a combination of an extremely long ballot (with eleven state amendment questions) and a high number of absentee ballots. There were 240,000 absentee ballots in Miami-Dade County, Florida alone, with 54,000 of these cast on election day. Four urban counties, Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Duval, all experienced problems with counting their large number of absentee ballots. Each ballot had to be hand certified page by page, and then the pages had to be hand fed into the counting machine one by one. At noon Friday, Dade and Broward had finished counting, but Palm Beach and Duval were still counting.

2012 United States presidential election in FloridaPartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Democratic Barack Obama (incumbent) 4,237,756 50.01% 29 Republican Mitt Romney 4,163,447 49.13% 0 Libertarian Gary Johnson 44,726 0.53% 0 Green Jill Stein 8,947 0.11% 0 Peace and Freedom Party Roseanne Barr 8,154 0.10% 0 Objectivist Party Tom Stevens 3,856 0.05% 0 Justice Party Rocky Anderson 1,754 0.02% 0 America's Party Tom Hoefling 946 0.01% 0 Reform Andre Barnett 820 0.01% 0 Socialist Stewart Alexander 799 0.01% 0 Socialism and Liberation Peta Lindsay 322 0.00% 0 Write-ins Write-ins 2,652 0.03% 0 Totals 8,474,179 100.00% 29 Voter turnout (eligible voters) 72.00%

By county

County Barack ObamaDemocratic Mitt RomneyRepublican Various candidatesOther parties Margin Total votes cast # % # % # % # % Alachua 69,699 57.71% 48,797 40.40% 2,277 1.89% 20,902 17.31% 120,773 Baker 2,311 20.29% 8,975 78.80% 104 0.91% -6,664 -58.51% 11,390 Bay 22,051 27.53% 56,876 71.01% 1,174 1.46% -34,825 -43.48% 80,101 Bradford 3,325 28.51% 8,219 70.46% 120 1.03% -4,894 -41.95% 11,664 Brevard 122,993 42.94% 159,300 55.62% 4,135 1.44% -36,307 -12.68% 286,428 Broward 508,312 67.12% 244,101 32.23% 4,941 0.65% 264,211 34.89% 757,354 Calhoun 1,664 26.91% 4,366 70.61% 153 2.48% -2,702 -43.70% 6,183 Charlotte 35,906 42.28% 47,996 56.52% 1,021 1.20% -12,090 -14.24% 84,923 Citrus 28,460 38.37% 44,662 60.22% 1,047 1.41% -16,202 -21.85% 74,169 Clay 25,759 26.61% 70,022 72.33% 1,024 1.06% -44,263 -45.72% 96,805 Collier 51,698 34.62% 96,520 64.64% 1,106 0.74% -44,822 -30.02% 149,324 Columbia 8,462 31.08% 18,429 67.69% 336 1.23% -9,967 -36.61% 27,227 DeSoto 4,174 42.22% 5,587 56.51% 126 1.27% -1,413 -14.29% 9,887 Dixie 1,798 25.84% 5,052 72.60% 109 1.56% -3,254 -46.76% 6,959 Duval 196,737 47.67% 211,615 51.27% 4,381 1.06% -14,878 -3.60% 412,733 Escambia 58,185 39.06% 88,711 59.55% 2,071 1.39% -30,526 -20.49% 148,967 Flagler 23,207 45.77% 26,969 53.19% 531 1.04% -3,762 -7.42% 50,707 Franklin 1,845 33.58% 3,570 64.98% 79 1.44% -1,725 -31.40% 5,494 Gadsden 15,770 70.01% 6,630 29.43% 125 0.56% 9,140 40.58% 22,525 Gilchrist 1,885 23.75% 5,917 74.55% 135 1.70% -4,032 -50.80% 7,937 Glades 1,603 40.03% 2,344 58.54% 57 1.43% -741 -18.51% 4,004 Gulf 2,014 28.26% 4,995 70.10% 117 1.64% -2,981 -41.84% 7,126 Hamilton 2,228 41.11% 3,138 57.90% 54 1.00% -910 -16.79% 5,420 Hardee 2,463 34.00% 4,696 64.83% 85 1.17% -2,233 -30.83% 7,244 Hendry 4,751 46.51% 5,355 52.42% 109 1.07% -604 -5.91% 10,215 Hernando 37,830 45.07% 44,938 53.54% 1,160 1.39% -7,108 -8.47% 83,928 Highlands 16,148 37.96% 25,915 60.92% 478 1.12% -9,767 -22.96% 42,541 Hillsborough 286,467 52.71% 250,186 46.04% 6,776 1.25% 36,281 6.67% 543,429 Holmes 1,264 15.25% 6,919 83.46% 107 1.29% -5,655 -68.21% 8,290 Indian River 27,492 38.41% 43,450 60.70% 638 0.89% -15,958 -22.29% 71,580 Jackson 7,342 35.02% 13,418 64.00% 207 0.98% -6,076 -28.98% 20,967 Jefferson 3,945 50.45% 3,808 48.70% 67 0.85% 137 1.75% 7,820 Lafayette 687 20.17% 2,668 78.33% 51 1.50% -1,981 -58.16% 3,406 Lake 61,799 40.89% 87,643 57.99% 1,702 1.02% -25,844 -17.10% 151,144 Lee 110,157 41.32% 154,163 57.83% 2,278 0.85% -44,006 -16.51% 266,598 Leon 90,881 61.13% 55,805 37.54% 1,985 1.33% 35,076 23.59% 148,671 Levy 6,119 33.15% 12,054 65.31% 284 1.54% -5,935 -32.16% 18,457 Liberty 942 28.64% 2,301 69.96% 46 1.40% -1,359 -41.32% 3,289 Madison 4,176 47.85% 4,474 51.27% 77 0.88% -298 -3.42% 8,727 Manatee 66,503 43.22% 85,627 55.65% 1,736 1.13% -19,124 -12.43% 153,866 Marion 66,831 41.32% 93,043 57.53% 1,864 1.15% -26,212 -16.21% 161,738 Martin 30,107 38.09% 48,183 60.96% 747 0.95% -18,076 -22.87% 79,037 Miami-Dade 541,440 61.58% 332,981 37.87% 4,758 0.55% 208,459 23.71% 879,179 Monroe 19,404 49.56% 19,234 49.12% 516 1.32% 170 0.44% 39,154 Nassau 10,251 25.23% 29,929 73.67% 445 1.10% -19,678 -48.44% 40,625 Okaloosa 23,421 24.63% 70,168 73.80% 1,486 1.57% -46,747 -49.17% 95,075 Okeechobee 4,856 39.27% 7,328 59.25% 183 1.48% -2,472 -19.98% 12,367 Orange 273,665 58.56% 188,589 40.36% 5,049 1.08% 85,076 18.20% 467,303 Osceola 67,239 61.73% 40,592 37.27% 1,091 1.00% 26,647 24.46% 108,922 Palm Beach 349,651 58.14% 247,398 41.13% 4,390 0.73% 102,253 17.01% 601,439 Pasco 98,263 45.86% 112,427 52.48% 3,558 1.66% -14,164 -6.62% 214,248 Pinellas 239,104 52.08% 213,258 46.45% 6,750 1.47% 25,846 5.63% 459,112 Polk 114,622 45.95% 131,577 52.75% 3,243 1.30% -16,955 -6.80% 249,442 Putnam 11,667 37.13% 19,326 61.50% 431 1.37% -7,659 -24.37% 31,424 St. Johns 35,190 30.59% 78,513 68.25% 1,332 1.16% -43,323 -37.66% 115,035 St. Lucie 65,869 53.42% 56,202 45.58% 1,230 1.00% 9,667 7.84% 123,301 Santa Rosa 17,768 23.06% 58,186 75.51% 1,106 1.43% -40,418 -52.45% 77,060 Sarasota 95,119 45.74% 110,504 53.14% 2,338 1.12% -15,385 -7.40% 207,961 Seminole 96,445 46.12% 109,943 52.57% 2,732 1.31% -13,498 -6.45% 209,120 Sumter 19,524 32.25% 40,646 67.13% 376 0.62% -21,122 -34.88% 60,546 Suwannee 4,751 26.85% 12,672 71.63% 269 1.52% -7,921 -44.78% 17,692 Taylor 2,764 30.24% 6,249 68.37% 127 1.39% -3,485 -38.13% 9,140 Union 1,339 24.76% 3,980 73.59% 89 1.65% -2,641 -48.83% 5,408 Volusia 114,748 48.78% 117,490 49.94% 3,016 1.28% -2,742 -1.16% 235,254 Wakulla 5,175 35.21% 9,290 63.21% 232 1.58% -4,115 -28.00% 14,697 Walton 6,671 23.34% 21,490 75.19% 421 1.47% -14,819 -51.85% 28,582 Washington 2,820 25.54% 8,038 72.79% 184 1.67% -5,218 -47.25% 11,042Totals4,237,75649.90%4,163,44749.03%90,9721.07%74,3090.87%8,492,175

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican Flagler (largest city: Palm Coast)