Monday, May 20, 2013
WASHINGTON – In 2008, 50.8 percent of Piscataquis County voters cast their ballots for Barack Obama’s Republican opponent, John McCain.
Four years later, Piscataquis County’s preference for a Republican over Obama hadn’t budged an inch – or, more precisely, a tenth of a percent. Mitt Romney picked up, you guessed it, 50.8 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results.
The opposite was true, meanwhile, in Sagadahoc County where Obama received the support of exactly 57.0 percent of voters in both 2008 and 2012.
Those are a few of the curiosities from Maine’s presidential race.
Overall, Obama soundly defeated Romney among Maine voters by a split of 56 percent to 41 percent, with the remaining votes going to two lesser-knowns. That’s several percentage points less than Obama’s victory over McCain in 2008.
There were a few places in Maine where the president did better his second time around, however. For instance, Obama’s support among Aroostook County voters rose from 53.7 percent in 2008 to 55.3 percent this year, again according to unofficial results. He also claimed 0.2 and 0.3 percent more of the voting block this year in Washington and in Knox counties, respectively.
Knox was also one of two counties – the other being Cumberland – where the president hit 60 percent this year, whereas he only reached that threshold in Cumberland in 2008.
The biggest swing award goes to Androscoggin County, where the president’s support base fell by 6.6 percent since 2008. Piscataquis remained the only county in Maine where Obama lost on Tuesday, just like in 2008.
Obama’s popularity fell in the cities of Portland and Bangor by 2.4 and 4.3 percent, respectively, although 74.5 percent of Portland voters still cast their ballots for the president.
In Augusta, meanwhile, Obama’s unofficial tally on Tuesday was 59.1 percent, up 0.3 percent from four years earlier.
To see the full results of Maine’s elections, including legislative races, click here.
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Kevin Miller is Washington bureau chief for the Portland Press Herald and MaineToday Media. He has worked as a journalist in Maine for 6 ½ years, covering the environment, politics and the State House. Before arriving in Maine, he wrote about politics, government and education for newspapers in Virginia and Maryland.
Kevin can be reached at 317-6256 or kmiller@mainetoday.com
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