President Barack Obama arrives on stage after winning the 2012 US presidential election November 7, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. Obama swept to re-election, forging history again by defying the dragging economic recovery and high unemployment which haunted his first term to beat Republican Mitt Romney. (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Mitt Romney’s campaign has admitted it lost the state of Florida to President Barack Obama Tuesday, according to CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald.
Romney had previously conceded the race because President Obama had secured more than enough Electoral College votes to be re-elected president, even without Florida.
“We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win,” Romney’s Florida advisor Brett Doster told the Herald. Obviously, we didn’t, and for that I and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table.
The news comes as Miami-Dade County finally reported its unofficial numbers Thursday afternoon showing Obama captured 538,861 votes (61.57%) to Romney’s 331,602 (37.89%). Statewide, Obama won 4,180,697 votes (49.9%) to Romney’s 4,124,865 (49.24%); a difference of 55,832.
Obama’s lead is outside of the 0.5 percent needed to trigger an automatic recount under state law.
According to the Herald, based on Obama’s leads in Miami-Dade County, Broward County, Palm Beach County, and Duval County, even if the margin of victories in those counties were reversed, Romney would still likely lose the presidency.
The likely victory in Florida will give President Obama 332 Electoral College votes to Romney’s 206 Electoral College votes. A total of 270 Electoral College votes are needed to win the White House.
Preliminary results from the counties are supposed to be submitted to the state by noon Saturday. The final results are set to be certified November 20.
