America has spoken and the closely watched results are in. However, the results don’t show how close this election really was. There were about eight states that in pre-election polls were a “tossup”, or largely undecided. These swing states were the focus of the two candidates and they were ultimately the deciders of this election. Some of these battleground states were a little closer than others, but there was the potential for these states to change the outcome. In all of the battleground states, Obama was victorious. This was huge and gave the President an overwhelming triumph. Obama won 26 states to Romney’s 24. In addition, Obama won more of the higher Electoral College states. Republicans continued their domination of the southern states, but in the states and counties where the President bailed out the auto industry a couple years ago, such as Michigan and northern Ohio, Obama found major critical support. The final result in the Electoral College is 303 for Obama and 206 for Romney. This is negating Florida because they temporarily paused counting voting for the night of November the sixth. Either way, the 2012 Election resulted in the re-election of the President. Although the final result doesn’t show it, this campaign was close due to the large battleground states that were tossups until Election Day. Now, Americans are getting ready for the next four years that the President has promised will bring change. Look for the more in-depth report on the results of this election in the hard print copy of the November Purple Quill .