Barack Obama has won the 2012 Presidential election, with CNN, MSNBC and Fox all projecting that he has been re elected for his final four year term in the last hour.

Based on projections, Obama has taken 274 electoral college votes while Romney has 201.

A candidate needs 270 votes to win.

Each state has a quota of Electoral College votes based on its population, and the eventual winner will be the candidate who tallies the most.

In an explosion of movement and sound, people in the packed convention center that's Obama's party site cheered and stood waving small American flags.

Obama has grabbed Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, dramatically shrinking Mitt Romney's chances and he is also projected to win Ohio.

As expected, Obama polled strongly in New England and the industrial northeast, grabbing densely populated states like New York, New Jersey and Wisconsin, according to news network projections.

His rival Romney did predictably well in the southern Bible Belt and western states, winning the major prize of Texas and taking back Indiana, which Obama won in 2008.

But Romney failed to win Michigan, his home state where his father served as governor, and the key battleground states of Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio remained too close to call.
 
Obama also won New Hampshire, which had been considered a swing state, and Wisconsin, the home state of Romney's running mate Paul Ryan.

Story by: Vijay Narayan