Obama wins Florida at last, pushing final electoral tally to 332-206
The last state in the 2012 presidential race has been called, with the Associated Press projecting that Florida will go narrowly for President Obama.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Obama leads Romney by nearly a full point, 50.0 percent to 49.1 percent. (Full election results here.) Had the margin been within half a percentage point, it would have triggered a computer recount.
The win means Obama swept all of the most competitive states except North Carolina, and he walks away with a huge win in the electoral college — 332 to 206 — despite carrying the popular vote by just 2.6 percent.
Florida is the biggest prize among the swing states, with 29 electoral votes. Had Romney carried it, Obama would have won the electoral vote by a significantly smaller margin: 303 to 235.
Obama’s electoral vote total is actually relatively close to what he took in his first race in 2008, when he also carried North Carolina and Indiana and got one electoral vote from the congressional district in Omaha, Neb. That year, he got 365 electoral votes.
Florida has now gone Democratic in two straight elections for the first time since 1944 and 1948.