Overall turnout as a percentage of the voting age population was down pretty significantly. From the growth of the voting age population, at 2008 participation , there would have been 5 million more votes, but 2012 turnout isn’t even going to match 2008.
I understand that but that's largely because Obama got something like 5% less turnout. Which means he doesn't have a whole lot of political capital to make mistakes now.
But I believe Romney won more votes than McCain did last time around.