Obama won 52% of popular vote
2008-11-05 22:25
Washington - Democrat Barack Obama won the popular vote by a six-point margin of 52 to 46% for vanquished Republican rival John McCain, US networks said on Wednesday.
Obama earned 62.98 million votes nationwide and McCain, 55.78 million, NBC reported.
The tally according to Fox News was 62.95 million for Obama and 55.75 million for McCain.
The winner of the popular vote does not always get the keys to the White House.
In the extraordinarily close 2000 presidential race, Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote, but President George W Bush came out on top in the Electoral College.
As of 16:30 GMT, with results given in 48 states and the District of Columbia, Obama had secured 349 Electoral College votes compared with 163 for McCain.
Missouri and North Carolina remained too close to call.
States are apportioned electoral votes according to the size of their population, and in most of the 50 states the winner of a state's popular vote gets all its electoral votes.