This is one of those rare elections in which turnout in every state in the nation went down,” Gans said.
Of course, those numbers can still turn around as the final wave of votes are officially reported from various states across the country.
As it stands now, President Obama received 50 percent of the popular vote compared to Romney's 48 percent, according to CNN. Obama netted approximately 59.9 million votes, while his Republican challenger got about 57.2 million.
The current totals are Obama 62,615,406 votes (51%) and Romney 59,142,004 votes (48%). Go to the CNN election central and see the totals nationally and by state. CA has only reported 81% of its vote and Ohio 90%. There are millions of votes to be added to these totals.
The trend for Obama was across the board: fewer votes in all swing states. However, the Republicans were able to increase the votes for Romney in seven of the nine states. However, those two states were big: Ohio and Pennsylvania although the Obama losses were much larger.
Republican differences in the swing states:
Ohio: -80,702
Michigan: +64,034
Wisconsin: +146,313
Pennsylvania: -36,302
Florida: +116,457
Colorado: +51,807
Iowa: +42,565
Virginia: +64,613
Nevada: +49,595
And there are still more votes to count. The reality is that Obama had far larger losses of votes and Romney did better than McCain where it counted. Moreover, in states like Montana, IN, MO, and ND, he did far better than the GOP Senate candidates.