2012 General Election Federal/Statewide Results

Read below for Tuesday's results of federal/statewide races. And click here for local results of the same general election. (All results are unofficial until certified.)

President Barack Obama won in Pennsylvania, gaining the state's 20 electoral votes, according to CBS, NBC, ABC and The Associated Press. Obama also won overall re-election.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey also won in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Casey's opponent, Republican coal executive and Tea Party founder Tom Smith, conceded at 10:30 p.m.

Prior to Tuesday's vote, influential Pennsylvania political insiders differed on the key to winning the Keystone State for President Barack Obama or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Republicans said that the role of undecided and independent voters would be key to a Romney win, while Democrats said that turning out their base would be the top priority for Obama, according to Red Keystone/Blue Keystone surveys conducted by Patch.

Here's how the replies from survey respondents broke down:

Republicans on what's more important:

• 13 — Get out the base
• 35 — Convince undecided/independent voters

Democrats on what's more important:

• 21 — Get out the base
• 6 — Convince undecided/independent voters

Who will win Pennsylvania?

Democrats were far more unified than Republicans in their opinion of who will win Pennsylvania. Twenty-seven said Obama, while just two said Romney. Eighteen Republicans said Obama, and 32 said Romney.

Who had the best ground game and advertising campaign?

Patch asked survey-takers to assess their candidates' campaigns, regardless of the respondents' partisan preferences. Democrats and Republicans both largely supported their candidates on the question of who ran the best campaign.

How did Pennsylvania vote in the 2008 presidential race?

In 2008, Pennsylvania voted Democratic, with nearly 3.3-million voters, or 55 percent, casting ballots for the Obama-Biden team. Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin earned nearly 2.7-million votes. According to statistics collected by the Pennsylvania Department of State, voter turnout was about 68.4 percent in 2008.

2010 was a much better election year, however, for Republican candidates in Pennsylvania.

Former state Attorney General Tom Corbett, a Republican, defeated then-Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, a Democrat, in the race for governor. Republicans also picked up a seat in the state Senate, gained five seats in the state House of Representatives and took control of both chambers of the state Legislature.

Here's a sampling of comments from the Red/Blue Patch surveys:

Republicans

• I think the results will be extremely close and will be based on turnout, yet at the same time, I believe the local elections down the ballot will be affected in results by the amount of times a person is willing to switch parties. They will for president, but the questions remains, when will they change back to their party.

• If Pennsylvania goes to Romney, it's going to be an early election night. Looks like team R and R may have caught the President flat-footed.

• Republicans will increase house margin from 12-7 to 13-5.

• Record voter turnout in GOP areas, average turnout in Dem areas.

• I think voters are disappointed with how things have gone the past four years and will make that frustration heard at the polls on Tuesday.

Democrats

• The presidential campaign has been lackluster in Pennsylvania. Obama felt that this was his state from the beginning, and Romney has not been highly involved until recently.

• While I believe the enthusiasm for President Obama has diminished a bit since the 2008 election, I'm not seeing much enthusiasm at all for Gov. Romney.

• I think Casey, Kane, and McCord will win. Auditor General will be a nail biter and unfortunately I believe Mark Critz is going to lose. I think the Democrats will pick up a total of 4-6 seats in the state House and 1 in the state Senate.

• Pennsylvania must institute an early voting program—similar to 37 other states.

• I am distressed and, quite frankly, disgusted with the influence of the Super PACs on this election. Money should not buy a candidate an office and these Super PACs exist only to use their dollars to buy the office for the candidate of their choice. Their ads are, in many cases, misleading and misinformed. If those individuals have so much money, why don't they use it to help people rather than work to tear our country apart with their rhetoric?

Also on the presidential ballot on Tuesday was Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

Voters also selected candidates to fill three state offices:

Pennsylvania Treasurer

Robert McCord (D-Incumbent)
Diana Irey Vaughan (R)
Patricia M. Fryman (Libertarian) 

Pennsylvania Attorney General

Kathleen Kane (D)
David Freed (R)
Marakay J. Rogers (Libertarian)

Pennsylvania Auditor General 

Eugene DePasquale (D)
John Maher (R)
Betsy Elizabeth Summers (Libertarian)

Voters in Baldwin-Whitehall also helped to choose two members of the U.S. House of Representatives—one each for the newly redesigned 14th (Baldwin Borough/Baldwin Township) and 18th (Whitehall Borough) districts.

In the 14th, incumbent Mike Doyle (D) faced Hans Lessmann (R), and in the 18th, it was incumbent Tim Murphy (R) against Lawrence Maggi (D).

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