Third Party Candidates give Florida to President Obama
President Obama, late in the night, took the state of Florida, thereby ensuring his second term in office.
An analysis of the numbers shows that Obama won Florida by a margin of 46,039 votes, a steep decline from his 2008 margin of victory of 204,577. What was different then from now? According to the voting results for Florida it was the third party candidates that gave the President the state and a second term.
The ten Independent candidates drew a total of 70,949 votes.
Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson famously stated, “If you want to waste your vote, vote for me.” Truer words were never spoken.
Presidential Election 2012 – Florida Votes
| CANDIDATE | PARTY | VOTES | PCT. |
| Barack Obama (i) | Dem | 4,129,360 | 3.5% |
| Mitt Romney | GOP | 4,083,321 | 3.5% |
| Gary Johnson | Lib | 43,479 | 0.0% |
| Jill Stein | Grn | 8,676 | 0.0% |
| Roseanne Barr | PFP | 7,971 | 0.0% |
| Tom Stevens | Obj | 3,792 | 0.0% |
| Virgil Goode | CST | 2,527 | 0.0% |
| Rocky Anderson | JP | 1,712 | 0.0% |
| Tom Hoefling | AIP | 912 | 0.0% |
| Andre Barnett | RP | 790 | 0.0% |
| Stewart Alexander | Soc | 776 | 0.0% |
| Peta Lindsay | PSL | 314 | 0.0% |
Chart courtesy of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Finally, President Obama won the popular vote by 2,357,500 over Governor Romney. The Independent candidates took 1,781,825 popular votes. That leaves President Obama with a victory margin of 575,675 popular votes.
America is truly a divided nation. It does not get any closer than this.
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