electoral map final
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Do you see that one part of the map there in the lower-right corner that’s not like the rest of the map? If you were of political age in 2000, this mostly red-and-blue map looks frighteningly familiar, but fear not: even though the phrase “Florida is still too close to call” may send shudders down many people’s spines, this time around it won’t matter much.

As you’ve no doubt heard, President Barack Obama was reelected to a second term last night, winning 303 electoral votes to Mitt Romney’s 206, with Florida’s 29 still to be decided. (It may even go to a dreaded recount.) Most networks decided to declare Obama the projected winner around 11:15 on Tuesday night, shortly after concluding that Romney could not overcome his deficit in Ohio. Ohio’s 18 electoral votes pushed Obama past 270, giving him the victory.

The popular vote is still being counted, but it looks as though Obama will take about 51 percent and Romney about 48 percent. It may be weeks before the exact vote is known, but we do know for certain that Obama will spend the next four years living in the White House (despite Florida’s efforts).

In other election news from last night, Republicans retained control of the House of Representatives and Democrats won a continued majority in the Senate, though each house’s exact numbers are still uncertain.

Democrats won highly contested Senate races in Massachusetts (Elizabeth Warren over Scott Brown), Missouri (Claire McCaskill over Todd Akin), Wisconsin (Tammy Baldwin over Tommy Thompson), Indiana (Joe Donnelly over Richard Mourdock), Connecticut (Chris Murphy over Linda McMahon) and Virginia (Tim Kaine over George Allen). Republicans won in Arizona (Jeff Flake over Richard Carmona) and Nevada (Dean Heller over Shelley Berkley). Races in Montana and North Dakota are still being tallied. A roundup of Senate results can be found here.

Numerous prominent ballot measures across the country were up for a vote last night as well. Voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington State approved legalizing gay marriage, while Minnesota voters rejected a ban against it. Colorado and Washington voted to allow recreational usage of marijuana, but Oregon turned it down. A roundup of notable ballot-measure results can be found here.

Just after he was declared the winner, Barack Obama tweeted out the photo below, which in 22 minutes became the most popular tweet of all time:

Obama victory tweet photo
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Twitter/BarackObama

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