Chad Abshire
Staff Writer
Citizens of Kentucky and West Virginia have chosen Mitt Romney to be their president.
The Associated Press called the race within minutes of each state’s polls closing, with Romney capturing a total of Kentucky’s eight electoral votes and West Virginia’s five.
Early poll data with 25 precincts reporting in shows that 4,224 people in Mingo County voted for Romney, giving him 68.86 percent of the vote. Obama earned 1,748 votes, a total of 28.5 percent of the county.
Third party candidates Jill Stein (Mountain), Gary Johnson (Libertarian) and Randall Terry (N/A) received 43, 61 and 39 votes respectively. There were 19 write-in votes.
In Pike County, Ky., with all precincts reporting in, Romney claimed 17,560 votes, 74.5 percent; Obama took 5,627 votes, 23.9 percent; and other candidates got a combined 397 votes, 1.7 percent.
Romney made short work of West Virginia, easily carrying a state where Obama suffers some of his lowest approval ratings.
The former Massachusetts governor was heavily favored entering Election Day over the Democratic incumbent. The race was called at poll closing based on exit poll data.
Just over half of West Virginia's voters are Democrats. But coal remains an important part of its economy, and the industry is fiercely at odds with Obama administration policy.
Obama also lost the state in 2008 by more than 13 percent of the vote. Tuesday marked the fourth consecutive presidential election where West Virginia chose the GOP nominee.
Neither Romney nor Obama campaigned in West Virginia. They instead focused on such battlegrounds as neighboring Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
An exit poll conducted nationwide today for The AP found that the economy is still at the top of the list of voter concerns, with 6 in 10 saying it’s the biggest issue facing the nation.
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