Harvard Republicans chose former Governor Mitt Romney overwhelmingly Tuesday in the presidential primary. Of the 593 votes cast to choose a Republican candidate for president, Romney earned 420. Texas Representative Ron Paul followed far behind with 82. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum won 58. The only other actively campaigning candidate, former Georgia congressman and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, received 21 votes.
Statewide results were similar to Harvard’s, but with Paul’s and Santorum’s positions reversed.
Romney won over Harvard Republicans in 2008 as well, with 409 votes to Senator John McCain’s 339. Romney went on to lose the nomination that year and McCain lost the general election to Democrat Barack Obama. This time around, President Obama was unopposed on the ballot. He won 177 votes in Harvard, easily holding off his closest opponent, "blank."
Of the four ballots cast in Harvard in the Green-Rainbow Party presidential primary, Lexington physician Jill Stein received three. "Blank" received the other vote.
According to the Town Clerk’s office, voter turnout was 20 percent of active voters, 791 of 3,775.