November 8, 2012

  Despite an inordinately long campaign, in many ways the results were not surprising.  As frequently happens, the popular vote was a close shave for both candidates:

                Obama                 over 49%

                Romney               49.0%

  But equally as usual, the Electoral College margin was far more decisive (these figures are as of early Wednesday morning):

                Obama                 303 Electoral votes

                Romney               203 Electoral votes

NOTES:  Needed to win – 270 out of 538 total Electoral votes.  Figures do not include Florida (29 votes) and Alaska (3 votes), which are still undecided at this writing.

  Despite the undecided votes, and even the possibility of some challenges, President Obama has clearly been re-elected after a hard-fought campaign.  South Boston Online congratulates him.  We wish him well during his second term in office.

  COMMENTS:  The voter turnout was enormous, besting the previous record set in 2008 (131 million).  Reports (unconfirmed at this writing) have surfaced that indicate the turnout may have exceeded 90% of all potential voters, which could amount to nearly 150 million (150,000,000).  But despite this, and despite a year-long $6 billion campaign, Washington will remain essentially unchanged in 2013/2014 – a Democratic Presidency, a Democratic Senate, and a Republican House of Representatives.

  While most incumbents were returned to office, an exception was the Massachusetts race for the Senate, where Elizabeth Warren defeated Sen. Scott Brown.  Early results (with more than 90% of the votes counted) showed Prof. Warren winning a clear victory over Sen. Brown, who conceded late Tuesday night, by a rounded estimate of 6%:

                Warren                                53%   (estimated)

                Brown                   47%   (         “        )

  South Boston Online also congratulates challenger Prof. Warren on a decisive election victory.

  Locally, South Boston resident and incumbent District 8 U.S. Congressman Stephen Lynch retained his seat in a landslide by garnering an estimated 75% of votes cast.  State Senator Jack Hart and state Representative Nick Collins were also returned to office, as was Clerk of Court Michael Donovan.  We congratulate all three of them.