Barack Hussain Obama Win Election 2012 Polls: US President Barack Obama has swept to re-election Tuesday according to US media reports, creating history again by defying the undertow of a slow economic recovery and high unemployment to beat Republican foe Mitt Romney.
According to latest unofficial results Republican candidate Mitt Romney got 203 electoral votes while US President Barack Obama has bagged 275 electoral votes, five more than required 270 votes. “This happened because of you. Thank you,” Obama tweeted to his 22 million followers on Twitter as a flurry of states, including Iowa, which nurtured his unlikely White House dreams suddenly tipped into his column.
After competing in his traditional Election Day basketball game, Obama had implored his supporters to vote in the final hours before polls closed in many states. Under the US constitution, each state is given a number of electoral votes in rough proportion to its population.
The candidate who wins 270 electoral votes – by prevailing in the mostly winner-take-all state contests – becomes president. There was a sudden explosion of jubilation at Obama’s Chicago victory party as the first African American president, who was elected on a wave of hope and euphoria four years ago, booked another four years in the White House.
In New Jersey polling timing was increased till eight in the evening after Sandy-affected people complained that they were facing difficulties in casting their votes. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan reached Ohio to caste their votes. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Colorado have been declared important states to win the historic US election.
Disappointed Republicans were seen leaving what had been billed as a celebration of Romney’s expected triumph in central Washington. Defeats in New Hampshire, where Romney has a summer home and Wisconsin, the home of Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan were especially sickening for Republicans.
Voting machines also broke down in a number of polling stations. One man in Pennsylvania posted a video of a machine which did not let him vote for Obama, apparently a malfunction. Republicans are projected to keep control of the House, while Democrats are tipped to remain in control in the Senate.
The president, who made history by becoming America’s first black president after a euphoric victory, carved a new precedent on Tuesday by defying the portents of a hurting economy to win a second term. He awaited his fate in his hometown of Chicago, while Romney, a multi-millionaire former investment manager and Massachusetts governor was laying low in a hotel in Boston awaiting results.
