BY NICK PHILIPS, Executive Editor
The 44th President of the United States of America Barack Obama won the general election witha convincing win via electoral votes.
Obama defeated Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney by majority popular vote.
As it stood Wednesday morning, Obama eclipsed the 270 vote total needed to win the majority vote. Florida had still not officially disclosed the winner of their 29 electoral votes.
Obama won some major states to propel him to his victory in the general election and earn him an additional four years in the White House. After winning his adopted home state of Illinois and their 20 electoral votes, Obama achieved an unexpected victory: Massachusetts. 11 electoral votes were won by the President in the home state of Romney. Obama won Illinois in convincing fashion by getting 57 percent of the state’s vote, with Romney only taking 41 percent. However, you could call it a stomping or putting the hammer down, but Obama trumped Romney’s home state by getting 61 percent of the vote to Romney’s 37 percent.
There was also the highly-anticipated “battleground” state of Ohio. In past election, Ohio has never been a sure thing. It has gone Democratic, Republican, and always usually down to the wire. It seems as though Obama won the majority of the vote in Cuyahoga County, the county in which Cleveland is located. The state was won by a two-percent margin with 50 percent of the vote going to Obama in a crucial victory to net him 18 electoral votes.
As expected, the icing on the cake was the state of California. Going into the election, projections and predictions labeled California as Obama’s state to lose. Romney was dealt a crucial blow when Obama received 20 percent more votes than Romney did at 59 percent and won a whopping vote total of 55 electoral votes once the West Coast states’ ballots were finally starting to file in.
Even though the electoral vote total is a 97-vote gap due to Obama being ahead, 303-206, it doesn’t resemble the dead heat this election was in the popular vote. As it stood, Obama had around 59 million votes and Romney had around 57 million. It would not have been the first time a President was elected without winning the popular vote, as Al Gore and John Kerry won the popular vote in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Gore lost to Republican George W. Bush, who would go on to also defeat Kerry in 2004 and serve a final four terms in charge.