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The2012 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus theDistrict of Columbia participated.Maine voters chose four electors to represent them in theElectoral College via a popular vote pittingincumbentDemocraticPresidentBarack Obama and his running mate,Vice PresidentJoe Biden, againstRepublican challenger and formerMassachusetts GovernorMitt Romney and his running mate,CongressmanPaul 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]
As of the2024 presidential election, this is the last election that the Democratic candidate wonMaine'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, andWashington. This is also the last election in which Maine was won by double digits.
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 2012 U.S. presidential election |
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| Democratic Party |
| Republican Party |
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The Republican caucuses were held between Sunday, January 29, and Saturday, March 3, at various locations throughout the state ofMaine. Presidential preference polls (straw polls) were held at the caucuses, but those polls were not binding on the choices of delegates to theMaine 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 inWaldo County on January 29[3] and the last one inCastine (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 inWashington 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 GovernorMitt Romney leading RepresentativeRon 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, GovernorPaul LePage was uncommitted. Of the three delegates qualified by the party offices they already hold, the state party chairman, Charlie Webster was also uncommitted, while the then National Committeeman and Committeewoman 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 | ||||||
| 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 |
| Source | Ranking (1st) | Ranking (2nd) | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York Times[22] | Safe D | Lean D | November 6, 2012 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball[23] | Safe D | Lean D | November 5, 2012 |
| 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 | |||
Shift by county
Trend relative to the state by county | Parts of this article (those related to County results) need to beupdated. The reason given is:County results needs to be fixed, totals aren't accurate when summed. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(March 2025) |
| 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 |
Obama won both of Maine's two congressional districts.[24]
| District | Obama | Romney | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 59.57% | 38.18% | Chellie Pingree |
| 2nd | 52.94% | 44.38% | Mike Michaud |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Elections and referendums in Maine | |||||
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State and district results of the2012 United States presidential election | ||
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