Popular Vote Winner: Obama Won Popular Vote By Nearly 3 Percent

Impact

President Barack Obama won re-election by electoral vote, 303 to 206, on Tuesday night. The next day, many are wondering if he will also carry the popular vote, and by how much. The President's win would be unimpeachable if it were also backed by popular mandate. 

According to Huffington Post Election Results, results are still being tabulated, but currently the president is winning the popular vote by approximately 2.5%. As of 11:20am Wednesday morning, the popular vote count was 59,903,905 for Obama and 57,208,649 for Romney.  

The New York Times' Nate Silver called the Obama win “broad” but not “deep.” At 2:31a.m. Wednesday, Silver predicted that, “Mr. Obama is also likely to win the popular vote, perhaps by two to three percentage points, once votes from California, Oregon and Washington are fully counted.”

The apparent early lead in the popular vote for Mitt Romney disappeared once these western states’ polls closed and large numbers were being reported for the president. Since Nate Silver is a witch, all of his predictions for these large western states bore out.

California: Obama 59.2%, Romney 38.5%

Oregon: Obama 53.4%, Romney 43.9%

Washington: Obama 55.2%, Romney 42.8%