2012 United States presidential election in Maine
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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]
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November 6, 2012
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As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last election that the Democratic candidate won Maine'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, and Washington. This is also the last election in which Maine was won by double digits.
Caucuses
Democratic caucuses
Republican caucuses
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.[2] The first caucus was in Waldo County on January 29[3] and the last one in Castine (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 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.[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, Governor Paul 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 | ||||||
General election
Predictions
| 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 | 1st district | 2nd district | 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 |
Results
| 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 | |||
By county
| 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 |
By congressional district
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 |