Final Election Numbers

All 50 states have now certified their presidential numbers. Here is the final popular vote tally for the 2008 presidential election:

Barack Obama and Joe Biden
Democratic
69,556,897
53.00%

John McCain and Sarah Palin
Republican
59,934,814
45.67%

Barr, Nader, McKinney, others
Third Parties, Independent
1,745,892
1.33%

One last look at the numbers:

-Obama's percentage of the national vote is the best performance by a Democratic candidate since 1964. And it's the best performance by candidates of either party since 1988. While not a landslide, Obama's 9,622,083 vote margin over McCain is strong and decisive...and larger than many predicted.

-McCain's final tally is about 900,000 more than John Kerry's in 2004, while Obama's is almost 9 million more than George W. Bush's.

-Obama won women 56% to 43%, and even won men by a slim 49% to 48%. He also won every age group except for those over 65. (He won 18 to 29 year olds by a whopping 66% to 32%!)

-And the Democratic ticket won gay voters 70% to 27%. That's actually a decrease in gay support from John Kerry's candidacy in 2004, when 23% of the gay vote went Republican. I have a hunch that extra 4% were Hillary supporters who were still bitter. (But I digress...)

And finally, as I reported last week, the Electoral College met on December 15th and cast their Constitutionally required ballots in the presidential race. All votes were cast as projected. Here is the final result:


Obama/Biden: 365 electoral votes
McCain/Palin: 173 electoral votes
Others: 0 electoral votes
(270 needed to win)

One last look at the map:

-Barack Obama's victories in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida are tremendously significant, as they are three states of the old confederacy. Jefferson Davis and Jesse Helms are rolling in their graves at the fact that a black man has won the presidency in part due to victories in three slave states of the Civil War era.

-The Democratic ticket's victories in Virginia and Indiana, as well as in the 2nd congressional district in Nebraska, are the first for the party in those states since 1964.

-While the Republican ticket won 22 states, their support in all but one (Arkansas) decreased compared to 2004.

-Obama/Biden's 365 vote total is the best performance in the Electoral College since 1996. (Bush barely squeaked through in 2000 with 271 votes and in 2004 with 286 votes).