Barack Obama was projected to be the winner of the 2012 election just after 11:00 p.m. eastern on election night. The next day, on Nov. 7, as the election results were still coming in, President Obama had a two point lead in the national vote total or roughly a 2.6 million lead in the raw vote total.
Twenty-two days later, states are still collecting data and the president's lead over former Gov. Mitt Romney is growing. According to data from the Cook Political Report, Obama's vote total has increased by nearly 2 million votes to a lead of over 4.5 million or 50.9% of the popular vote. Mitt Romney's vote share has fallen to 47%, a number he would likely care to forget.
It wasn't just the popular vote that grew for the president. His totals have also increased in four key battle ground states: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and Colorado.
In Florida, President Obama's lead increased by more than 28,000 votes to 4.23 million votes. In Ohio, the president's lead went up by an additional 50,000 votes to 2.79 million votes. And in Virginia, Obama gained an extra 40,000 votes to 1.97 million total votes. The president made even larger gains in the battleground state of Colorado where he gained 36,000 votes bringing his lead to 51.5% of the total vote.