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| This marked the 57th quadrennial presidential election for the United States Doug Mills/The New York Times |
Yesterday, November 6th, 2012 Barack
Obama became the 15th US President to be reelected for two
consecutive presidential terms. Only Franklin Delano Roosevelt has had more
than two terms (1932-1945).
CNN’s
preliminary data shows a turnout of approximately 56% of the voting-age
population. Although, this reflects a decrease in relation to the 2008 general
elections, the overall trend showing a steady increase prevailed. Two demographic
groups that seem to have played an important role in Obama’s favor are young
voters and Hispanics. According to
the most recent information available, young voters (ages 18-29) and Hispanics increased
their participation in 1% as compared to 2008. Obama managed to capture 60% of
young voters and 71% of Hispanics this time around.
Joe Biden was again Obama’s Vice
President candidate. From all Presidents US has had since George Washington’s first
presidency from 1789 to 1797, 37 were chosen in elections. John Tyler, Millard
Fillmore, Chester A. Arthur, Andrew Johnson, Calvin Coolidge, Teddy Roosevelt,
Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and Gerald R. Ford, succeeded incumbent
Presidents following their abandonment of office due to illness, death, or in
the unique case of Ford, Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.
According to USA
Today, President Obama won by a margin of 97 electoral votes (303 to 206). In
1936, Franklin Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon by the biggest difference ever
recorded in a US election, 515 electoral votes. The smallest difference in
electoral votes occurred during the 1824 presidential elections in which Andrew Jackson had only 15
electoral votes over his closest contender. The decision was taken into the
House of Representatives which decided to appoint John Quincy Adams as President.
In terms of popular votes, President
Obama obtained an approximate 2% margin over Mitt Romney. Only 5 presidents
have received a greater number of popular votes but lost in electoral colleges.
The last one being Al Gore during the 2000 elections. In 1876, Rutherford Hayes
defeated Samuel Tilden with a difference in popular vote of 1 vote.
Obama is the 21st Democrat
President. Republicans have managed to win the presidency with 22 candidates.
Only 4 presidents in the history of the US have lead this nation coming from parties
other than the Democratic or Republican parties. It is important to mention
that two independent candidates, Angus King and Bernie Sanders, managed to
obtain seats in the Senate.
In spite the difficulties presented
by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast Cost, the US managed to pull out another
successful election. Mitt Romney, the losing candidate from the Republican Party
conceded defeat around 1:30 am on November 7, 2012.
