The Free Press has declared Gov. Rick Snyder the winner in his re-election bid against Mark Schauer.
Paul Egan writes that Snyder "coasted to victory" in an election to decide whether the Republican had earned a second and final term or Democratic challenger Schauer got a chance to undo much of what Snyder did in the last four years.
Egan writes:
With 12% of precincts reporting, Snyder led with 56% of the vote, compared to 42% for Schauer. The Free Press projected a Snyder victory based on analysis of key precincts.
The state has seen costlier gubernatorial elections and nastier ones, but it's been 40 years since the outcome was this much in doubt as voters went to the polls. But the outcome proved to be not nearly as close as the polls suggested.
Most recent polls showed Snyder and Schauer within a couple of percentage points of each other and both the Republicans and Democrats are touting high-tech voter identification systems they say have boosted their absentee numbers and will help make sure as many of their supporters as possible cast ballots.
