There's no question that the Election of 2012 was intense and Prince William County was influential in the decision of several key races.
Voters in Prince William County braved exceedingly long lines to cast their vote for President Barack Obama. Despite the fact the President was ultimately re-elected before the final numbers were available in the Commonwealth, the national spotlight was cast on the area as both MSNBC, CNN and even BBC focused on the county throughout the evening.
Although Prince William can be defined as suburban middle class, the diversity of neighborhoods in Prince William yielded very different results among the electorate.
Mitt Romney dominated in rural areas in the Brentsville District most noticeably the Nokesville 104 precinct, where he earned 69.08 percent of the vote and the Brentsville 101 precinct, where Romney earned 64.53 percent.
Romney was also in the lead in affluent neighborhoods. In the Gainesville District, Romney also took Battlefield 402 by 66.81 percent and Evergreen by nearly 61 percent.
However, the President took even larger percentages in more Democratic parts of the county, negating Republican wins.
Barack Obama showed strongest in ethnically diverse neighborhoods on the eastern end of the county. President Obama won Potomac with nearly 80 percent of the vote, and won anywhere from 60-78 percent of the vote in a number of similar precincts, negating Republican wins in western precincts.
Though most of these precincts were located in eastern Prince William, in the Brentsville District, Obama took the Stonewall precinct 405 by 68.76 percent.
In Bristow, Mitt Romney held the lead in most precincts, but polls showed that the some races were extremely close. In Marsteller 107 Obama won 50-49.1 percent, and at Victory 108, Romney carried it 49.57 to 49.19.
Romney took Bristow Run in Kingsbrooke by only 50.7 to 48.06 percent, and Obama won Piney Branch on west Linton Hall Road with 53.82 percent to 44.51 percent. At Cedar Point 102 in Braemar, Romney’s lead was a little more comfortable 52.17 percent to 46.43 percent.
Other places where the race was very close included parts of the Gainesville District. At Buckland Mills Obama was 51.6 percent to Romney’s 47.52 percent, and Bull Run where both candidates were neck and neck, Romney just ahead with 49.68 percent to Obama’s 49.23 percent.
Where Romney won by small percentages in western precincts, Obama won by close margins in more eastern and mid-county precincts, such as Old Bridge, Washington-Reid and Patti.
Last night was a nail-biter for Prince William, and Virginia was still neither blue nor red at the time President Obama was unofficially declared the winner by most television stations. Finally it was determined that Virginia had gone for Barack Obama with only 50.57 percent of the vote.
In Prince William County, President Barack Obama earned 56.61 percent of the total votes with 99 percent of votes counted this Wednesday morning.
Prince William’s numbers suggest that voting trends are similar to 2008. Prince William and Virginia can no longer be considered a red state, but it is still prime battleground territory.
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