MICHIGAN 16 Electoral Votes 
link to clickable map
Michigan goes from 17 electoral votes to 16 as a result of reapportionment following the 2010 Census
Population 
(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Michigan Bureau of Elections)
Total Resident Population, July 1, 2012 est.              9,883,360
Total Registration, Oct. 2012                                        7,454,553
Michigan has: 83 counties.
Largest counties: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent, Genessee. >
Largest cities: Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights. >

Government
Governor: Rick Snyder (R) elected 2010.
State Legislature: Michigan State Legislature   House: 110 seats   Senate: 38 seats
Local: Counties and Cities   NACO Counties
U.S. House: 8R, 7D - 1. D.Benishek (R) | 2. B.Huizenga (R) | 3. J.Amash (R) | 4. D.Camp (R) | 5. D.Kildee (D) | 6. F.Upton (R) | 7. T.Walberg (R) | 8. M.Rogers (R) | 9. G.Peters (D) | 10. C.Miller (R) | 11. vacant(T.McCotter (R)/D.Curson (D) | 12. S.Levin (D) | 13. H.Clarke (D) | 14. J.Conyers (D) | 15. J.Dingell (D).
U.S. Senate: Carl Levin (D) re-elected in 2008, Debbie Stabenow (D) re-elected in 2012. 
2012
U.S. Senate: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D) won a third term, defeating former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R) by 58.80% to 37.98% and Lib., Grn., UST, NLP and w/in candidates getting the rest.
U.S. House: Michigan, which lost one seat due to reapportionment, had several contests of note. 
-
In the new 14th CD (parts of Detroit city, Wayne County and Oakland County), Rep. Gary Peters (D) defeated Rep. Hansen Clarke (D) in the Aug. 7 primary.  Peters then won in the general election by a more than 5 to 1 margin.
- In the 5th CD (Flint) Rep. Dale Kildee (D), first elected in 1976, retired.  His nephew Dan Kildee (D), president of the Center for Community Progress, defeatied businessman Jim Slesak (R) by a more than 2 to 1 margin to succeed him in the new 5th CD.
- In the new 11th CD (parts of Oakland County and Wayne County) the spectacle of Rep. Thad McCotter (R)'s botched re-election campaign created an open seat.  David Curson (D) won the Sept. 5, 2012 special primary election in the old 11th CD for the partial term, and served Nov. 13, 2012 through Jan. 2, 2013.  Running for the full term in the new 11th CD Kerry Bentivolio (R) defeated Dr. Syed Taj (D) by 50.76% to 44.36%. 
-In the 1st CD (Upper Peninsula), freshman Rep. Dan Benishek (R) won his rematch with former state Rep. Gary McDowell (D) by 1,881 votes or 167,060 (48.14%) to 165,179 (47.60%).
The balance goes from 9R, 6D  > 8R, 6D, 1v  > 8R, 7D  >  9R, 5D.

State Legislature: Republicans kept control both Houses of the State Legislature.  All 110 House seats were up; the 38 Senate seats were not.  The House went from 63R, 47D to 59R, 51D (Senate stayed at 26R, 12D).
Ballot Measures: Voters rejected all six state proposals covering topic ranging from collective bargaining to a limit on the enactment of new taxes.

 State of Michigan
Bureau of Elections

Green Party of MI
Libertarian Party of MI
MI Democratic Party
MI Republican State Comm.
Constitution Party of MI (USTP)

Detroit News
Detroit Free Press
MLive-Politics
Newspapers
TV
, Radio

Politics1-MI
Ballotpedia-MI
 


The Great Lakes State
General Election -- Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Voting Eligible Population*: 7,317,247.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 64.7%.


Voter Registration Deadline: October 9, 2012.



Official Results >


Romney/Ryan (Rep.) 2,115,256 (44.71)
+Obama/Biden (Dem.)
2,564,569 (54.21)
Goode/Clymer (UST)
16,119 (0.34)
Stein/Honkala (Grn.)
21,897
(0.46)
Anderson/Rodriguez (NLP)
5,147
(0.11)
Alexander (w/in)
89
-
Hoefling (w/in)
42
-
Johnson (w/in)
7,774
(0.16)
White (w/in)
68
-
Total........4,730,961


total votes: 4,780,701
Overview: Although the Republican ticket had not carried Michigan since Bush/Quayle defeated Dukakis/Bentsen in 1988, there were suggestions that Mitt Romney's ties to the state could put it in play.  That scenario was not to be.  The Obama/Biden ticket won Michigan with a plurality of 449,313 votes (9.50 percentage points), carrying 20 counties to 63 for Romney/Ryan.  The three Detroit area counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) produced 39.6% of the total votes in the presidential race (1,871,518 votes).  Macomb (51.48% to 47.49%) and Oakland (53.56% to 45.20%) were relatively close, but in Wayne County Obama racked up a plurality of 382,032 votes (73.03% to 26.21%).  Statewide 270,805 fewer votes were tallied in the presidential contest than in 2008 (a 5.4% decrease).
General Election Details
Obama  |  Romney
BALLOT [PDF]

[State Primary: August 7, 2012]
Republican Presidential Primary -- Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Democratic Caucuses -- Saturday, May 5, 2012
Democrats


 

Republicans
30 Delegates After Penalty (penalized 29 delegates for violating the window)

Official Results
Michele Bachmann
1,735
0.15%
Herman Cain
1,211
0.10%
Newt Gingrich
65,027
5.46%
Jon Huntsman
1,674
0.14%
Gary Johnson
458
0.03%
Fred Karger
1,189
0.10%
Ron Paul
115,911
9.72%
Rick Perry
1,816
0.15%
Buddy Roemer
1,784
0.15%
+Mitt Romney
409,522
34.37%
Rick Santorum
377,372
31.68%
Uncommitted
18,809
1.58%
Total
1,191,386

Details  ...delegates and alternates were selected at the state convention in Detroit on May 18.



General Election -- Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Voting Eligible Population*: 7,263,250.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 68.9%.


Total Registration: 7,470,764.


Official Results >
+

McCain-Palin (Rep.)
2,048,639
(40.96)
+Obama-Biden (Dem.)
2,872,579
(57.43)
McKinney (Grn.)
8,892
(0.18)
Baldwin (UST)
14,685
(0.29)
Barr/Root (Lib.)
23,716 (0.47)
Nader/Gonzalez (NLP)
33,085
(0.66)
Alan Keyes (w/in)
129
-
Brian Moore (w/in)
41
-
Total........ 5,001,766


2008 Overview
In early October, as the financial crisis piled on top of Michigan's own "one-state recession," the McCain camp cut its campaign here and shifted most of its resources from the state.  Obama went on to amass a plurality of 823,940 votes (16.47 percentage points), carrying 47 counties to 36 for McCain.  The three Detroit area counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) produced 39.4% of the total votes in the presidential race (1,968,610 votes).  In those three counties Obama tallied a plurality of 572,234 votes.  In Macomb County, of Reagan Democrat fame, Obama won 53.38% to 44.77% of the 419,216 votes cast.
General Election Details
Obama/Allies  |  McCain/Allies  |  Nader

General Election -- Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Voting Eligible Population: 7,263,024.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 66.6%.


Total Registration: 7,164,047.
Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
2,313,746
(47.81)
+Kerry/Edwards (Dem.)
2,479,183
(51.23)
Cobb (Grn.) 5,325 (0.11)
Peroutka (UST) 4,980
(0.10)
Badnarik (Lib.)
10,552
(0.22)
Brown (NLP)
1,431
(0.03)
Nader (NPA)
24,035
(0.50)
Total........4,839,252
 




2004 Overview
Bush made it close in Michigan, but Kerry prevailed in the end with a plurality of 165,437 votes (3.42 percentage points).  Bush carried 68 counties to 15 for Kerry.  The three Detroit area counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) produced 39.5% of the total votes in the presidential race (1,909,115 votes).  Kerry amassed a plurality of 342,294 votes in Wayne county and narrowly won in Oakland county, while Bush narrowly won in Macomb county.
General Election Details
Kerry/Allies  |  Bush/Cheney '04

General Election -- Tuesday, November 7, 2000
Voting Eligible Population: 7,070,702.
VEP Highest Office Turnout Rate: 59.9%.


Total Registration: 6,859,332.
ll


Bush/Cheney (Rep.)
1,953,139
 (46.15)
+Gore/Lieberman (Dem.)
2,170,418
(51.28)
Browne/Olivier (Lib.)
16,711
(0.39)
Hagelin/Goldhaber(NLP)
2,426
(0.06)
Phillips/Frazier (UST) 
3,791
(0.09)
Nader/LaDuke (Grn.)
84,165
(1.99)
Buchanan (w/in)
1,851
 (0.04)
Total........4,232,501

Total voters: 4,279,299
Turnout (% of VAP) was 58.2%

Notes
The Democratic, Republican, Reform, Libertarian and Natural Law parties all retained ballot status from 1998.  The US Taxpayers Party of Michigan and the Green Party of Michigan qualified by petitioning, submitting the required 30,272 valid signatures (1 percent of the total vote cast for governor in 1998) by July 20, 2000.  No Reform Party nominee appeared on the ballot because competing factions submitted two sets of papers, one for Buchanan and one for Hagelin. 

2000 Overview
The battleground state of Michigan went to Gore by a plurality of 217,279 votes (5.13 percentage points).  Bush carried 58 counties to 25 for Gore.  Almost 40% of the total vote (39.8%) comes from the Detroit area (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties).  Gore piled up a plurality of 307,393 votes in Wayne county and narrowly won in Oakland and Macomb.  As expected, Bush did well in Western Michigan (Kent County/Grand Rapids and the surrounding counties).  He underperformed in the city of Detroit, and would have had to have done better in Western Wayne county as well as in Oakland and Macomb to carry the state.

A statewide school vouchers initiative, Proposal 1, was overwhelmingly defeated, 69.1% to 30.9%.

General Election Activity


1992 and 1996 General Elections

1992
Clinton (Dem.).....1,871,182
(43.77)
Bush (Rep.).........1,554,940
(36.38)
Perot (Ind.)............824,813
(19.30)
Others (4+w/ins)......23,738
(0.56)
Total........4,274,673
Overall 4,341,909 people voted out of 6,147,083 registered. 
The VAP was 6,947,000 for a turnout (% of VAP) of 62.5%.
1996
Clinton (Dem.).....1,989,653
(51.69)
Dole (Rep.).........1,481,212 
(38.48)
Perot (Ref.)............336,670
(8.75)
Others (4+w/ins)......41,309
(1.07)
Total........3,848,844
Overall 3,912,261 people voted out of 6,677,079 registered. 
The VAP was 7,072,000 for a turnout (% of VAP) of 55.3%.
Archive Pages: 2008 | 2004 | 2000