# 2012 Michigan Republican presidential primary

Elections in Michigan :
Federal government
U.S. President
1836
1840
1844
1848
1852
1856
1860
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
Dem
2008
Dem
GOP
2012
Dem
GOP
2016
Dem
2020
Dem
GOP
2024
Dem
GOP
U.S. Senate
1835
1840 (sp)
1841
1847
1849 (sp)
1853
1857
1858
1862 (sp)
1863
1865
1869
1871
1874
1877
1879 (sp)
1881
1881 (sp)
1887
1889
1893
1895
1895 (sp)
1899
1901
1903 (sp)
1905
1907
1907 (sp)
1911
1913
1916
1918
1922
1924
1924 (sp)
1928
1928 (sp)
1930
1934
1936
1940
1942
1946
1948
1952
1952 (sp)
1954
1958
1960
1964
1966
1970
1972
1976
1978
1982
1984
1988
1990
1994
1996
2000
2002
2006
2008
2012
2014
2018
2020
2024
2026
U.S. House
1835
1837
1838
1840
1843
1844
1846
1847
1st sp
1848
1850
1852
1854
1856
1858
1860
1862
1864
1866
1868
1870
1871
4th sp
1872
1873
5th sp
1874
1876
1878
1880
1881
7th sp
1882
1884
1886
1888
11th sp
1890
1891
5th sp
1892
1893
1st sp
1894
1895
3rd sp
1896
1898
1900
1901
10th sp
1902
1904
1906
1907
5th sp
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1917
2nd sp
1918
1920
13th sp
1921
3rd sp
1922
1923
3rd sp
1924
1925
3rd sp
1926
1928
1930
1931
8th sp
1932
1934
1935
3rd sp
1936
1938
1940
5th sp
1942
1944
1946
1947
11th sp
1948
1950
1952
1954
1955
15th sp
1956
1958
1960
1961
1st sp
1962
14th sp
1964
1968
1970
1972
1974
5th sp
8th sp
1976
1978
1980
13th sp
1981
4th sp
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1993
3rd sp
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
11th
11th sp
2014
2016
2018
13th sp
2020
2022
2024 :
State government
State elections
2010
2014
2016
2018
2020
2021
2022
2024
Gubernatorial elections
1835
1837
1839
1841
1843
1845
1847
1849
1851
1852
1854
1856
1858
1860
1862
1864
1866
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
Attorney General elections
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
Secretary of State elections
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
Auditor General elections
1962
State Senate elections
2002
2006
2010
2014
2016
4th sp
2018
2021 (sp)
2022
State House elections
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
Ballot proposals
1996Proposal E
2004Proposal 04-2
2006Proposal 06-2
2008Proposal 1
2012
Proposal 1
Proposal 2
Proposal 3
Proposal 4
Proposal 5
Proposal 6
2015
Proposal 1
2018
Proposal 1
Proposal 2
Proposal 3
2020
Proposal 1
Proposal 2
2022
Proposal 1
Proposal 2
Proposal 3 :
Detroit
Mayoral elections
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1834 (sp)
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1861
1863
1865
1867
1869
1871
1873
1875
1877
1879
1881
1883
1885
1887
1889
1891
1893
1895
1897
1899
1901
1903
1905
1907
1901
1903
1905
1907
1909
1911
1913
1915
1917
1919
1921
1923
1925
1927
1929
1930 (recall)
1930 (sp)
1931
1933
1935
1937
1939
1941
1943
1945
1947
1949
1950 (sp)
1951
1953
1957
1961
1965
1969
1973
1977
1981
1985
1989
1993
1997
2001
2005
2009 (sp)
2009
2013
2017
2021
2025 :
Flint
Mayoral elections
2015
2017 (recall)
2019
2022 :
Grand Rapids
Mayoral elections
2015
2019
2024 :
Lansing
Mayoral elections
2017
2021 :
vte :
The 2012 Michigan Republican presidential primary took place on February 28, 2012, the same day as the Arizona Republican primary. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won both of these elections.

## Procedure
### Voting

This Michigan election used a semi-open primary system (which the state referred to as "closed") in which each voter made a public declaration at their election site and received the ballot for the appropriate party, rather than the fully open system used in the past. The state had 7,286,556 registered voters as of February 15.

### Delegate allocation

Michigan was given 59 delegates to the Republican (GOP) national convention, but that number was reduced to 30 as a penalty for bringing the election date forward before March 6 as the GOP rules set. The candidate with the greatest number of votes in each of the 14 congressional districts will receive that district's two delegates. Two additional delegates for Michigan were announced by the media to be given proportionally before the election but after the election the Michigan GOP announced there had been an error in the memo published and that the two delegates will be given to the winner, which sparked accusations of Mitt Romney rigging the results from Rick Santorum's team.

## Campaign

While Romney has close ties to Michigan, where he was born and grew up and his father was the Governor, Santorum, who once trailed Romney badly in the state, had a clear lead over him in mid February after Santorum won Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri caucuses and primary on February 7. And the competition became a statistical tie between these two candidates before the primary.
Since Michigan allows primary voters to declare their affiliation at the time they vote, Santorum campaign paid for robo-calls inviting Democrats to cross over and vote for him. Romney called this tactic "outrageous" and "disgusting" but Santorum defended himself as not doing anything wrong but getting people to vote in an open primary.
Some Democrats also urged their supporters to vote for Santorum in the Republican primary, in hopes of forcing the Republican candidates to use more resources and help make it easier for Barack Obama to win the general election. This is similar to Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos", where Limbaugh urged voters in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries to vote for Hillary Clinton, whom he saw as being a weaker candidate than Obama. Michigan has a long history of such crossover voting; in 2000, strong Democratic crossover votes helped Senator John McCain win the Michigan Republican primary. In 1972, Republican crossover votes propelled Governor George Wallace to victory in the Democratic primary.

### Polling
## Results

Polls closed at 8 PM local time on election day. While most of the state is in the Eastern time zone (UTC −5), four counties in the Upper Peninsula are on Central time (UTC −6), so the final closures came at 9 PM Eastern time. As of 2/28, results showed Romney winning 7 congressional districts and Santorum winning 7.
2012 Michigan Republican presidential primary :
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Projected delegate count | Projected delegate count | Projected delegate count |
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | AP | CNN | GP |
| Mitt Romney | 409,522 | 41.10% | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Rick Santorum | 377,372 | 37.87% | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Ron Paul | 115,911 | 11.63% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Newt Gingrich | 65,027 | 6.53% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rick Perry (withdrawn) | 1,816 | 0.18% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Buddy Roemer (withdrawn) | 1,784 | 0.18% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Michele Bachmann (withdrawn) | 1,735 | 0.17% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jon Huntsman (withdrawn) | 1,674 | 0.17% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Herman Cain (withdrawn) | 1,211 | 0.12% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fred Karger | 1,180 | 0.12% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gary Johnson (withdrawn) | 458 | 0.05% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Uncommitted | 18,809 | 1.89% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unprojected delegates: | Unprojected delegates: | Unprojected delegates: | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Total: | 996,499 | 100.00% | 30 | 30 | 30 |
At the Republican state convention in May, it was reported that of the 30 voting delegates for the national convention in Tampa, 6 were Paul supporters, and 24 were Romney supporters. Paul organizers disputed these numbers, stating that they had actually taken 8 (instead of 6) of the voting delegates, plus several non-voting slots.

### Delegate allocation controversy

A controversy arose over the delegate allocation in Michigan, where 28 congressional district delegates and two at-large delegates were awarded. The Republican Party of Michigan rules stated that the two at-large delegates would be awarded proportionally, meaning that Santorum and Romney would get one delegate each for a 15–15 tie. But the following day the party's credentials committee allocated both at-large delegates to Romney, saying it had changed the rules a few weeks prior to award the delegates to the statewide winner but "in error" sent a memo to the candidates saying they would be awarded proportionately. Santorum's campaign protested, saying the committee's six members were mostly Romney supporters, and filed a protest with the Republican National Committee. Santorum's general counsel wrote in a letter to the RNC, "It is our understanding that several public supporters and Michigan surrogates of an opposing campaign voted in favor of the delegate allocation change which assisted their chosen candidate. This request is not about the allocation of a single delegate; it is about ensuring a transparent process, avoiding unscrupulous tactics and backroom deals by establishment figures and campaigns who have not received the result they hoped for at the ballot box." Committee member and former state attorney general Mike Cox endorsed Romney, but said the delegates should have been awarded 15-15: "I have this crazy idea that you follow the rules. I'd love to give the at-large delegates to Mitt Romney, but our rules provide for strict apportionment."