Note: See latest results in Obama & Clinton Claim Most Votes
U.S. Senator Barrack Obama's lopsided victory in the Mississippi Democratic primary extended his lead over Senator Hillary Clinton in the first 31 Democratic presidential primaries. Updated unofficial state-by-state counts maintained by CNN gives Obama 14,132,579 votes and Clinton received 13,621,683 votes.
By comparison, U.S. Senator John McCain received 6,964,951 votes in the 29 primaries conducted by the Republican party through March 11. He wrapped up the GOP nomination the previous week. His total surpassed all other Republican candidates by wide margins.
Obama topped Clinton by 100,123 votes in the Mississippi primary March 11.
Like the popular vote in the November 4 presidential election, the total votes in the primaries provide the candidates with little more than bragging rights. The numbers might be used as material for campaign ads, for fund raising or to give some indication of how the candidates will fare in the general election.
Total Popular Vote Mostly Ignored by Media
The total primary numbers have received little attention in the news media.
The counts do not include any caucus votes since some of the caucuses are not open to all voters and the number of eligible voters varies with each state.
Clinton led Obama by more than 200,000 votes in the primaries through Super Tuesday. But she fell behind as Obama scored a series of primary victories in the weeks that followed. See Presidential Primary Popular Votes.
Here’s where the candidates registered their biggest numbers:
- McCain: California 1,093,560; Texas 709,477; Florida 693,508; Ohio 636,256; Illinois 424,071.
- Obama: California 1,890,026; Texas 1,358,785; Illinois 1,301,954; Ohio 979,025; Georgia 700,366.
- Clinton: California 2,306,361; Texas 1,459,814; Ohio 1,207,806; New York 1,003,623; Florida 857,208
Obama's Biggest Win Was In Illinois; Clinton's in California
Clinton scored her biggest victory in California, beating Obama by 416,335 votes.
Obama's most decisive victory was in his adopted state of Illinois, beating Clinton by 639,109. She is a native of Illinois, but has since moved to Arkansas and later to New York.
In most states, the CNN results accounted for 99 or 100 percent of the precincts.
As in the general elections, the Republican and Democratic nominees for president are not chosen by popular vote, but by the number of delegates who vote for them at the party conventions in August and September.
The impact of the popular vote is also lessened by the manner in which states allocate their delegates. Some direct all their delegates to the candidate with the highest popular vote, regardless of the margin. That means a candidate can lose the popular election by only a few votes and come away from that state with no delegates at all. Other states distribute the delegates in proportion to the popular vote.
Pennsylvania is Biggest of 19 Remaining Primaries
Nineteen primaries remained to be conducted prior to the national conventions. The schedule:
- April 22—Pennsylvania primaries
- May 6—Indiana and North Carolina primaries
- May 13—Nebraska Republican primary and West Virginia Democratic primary
- May 20—Kentucky and Oregon primaries
- May 27—Idaho Republican primary
- June 3—South Dakota primaries, Montana Democratic primary, New Mexico Republican primary
Barack Obama and Adlai Stevenson
Source: CNN website
