2012 Election: statistics and facts
The 2012 presidential election in the United States will be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Presidential elections in the United States are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, a tradition that dates back to 1845, a time when Americans still travelled by horse and carriage and voters needed the Monday to get to their voting location.
In the 2012 election, incumbent president Barack Obama will run for a second and final term as President of the United States of America. His opponent has yet to be determined. The Republican Party is currently holding its primaries to determine which candidate will ultimately run for the presidency.
Mitt Romney is currently leading the race for the GOP candidate. After fending off Rick Santorum ever so closely in the
Iowa Caucus on January 3, Romney won the
New Hampshire Primary a week later by a wide margin and looked set to take on Barack Obama in the fall. On January 21, however, Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina Primary and looked like Romney's main contender in the race for the candidacy. In February however, Rick Santorum staged a surprising comeback by winning the
primaries in Colorado and Minnesota.