Gov. Mitt Romney won Florida’s presidential primary handily, taking the state’s most populous counties on his way to securing its 50 Republican delegates. Late results showed Romney had 47 percent of the vote, with Gingrich taking 31 percent, according to CNN.com. In Charlotte County, Mitt Romney took 44 percent of Republican votes, to Newt Gingrich’s 34 percent, according to the Supervisor of Elections. With all precincts reporting and 20,612 votes counted, Romney had 9,043 to Gingrich’s 6,998. Rick Santorum had 2,882 (11 percent) and Ron Paul had 1,506 (6 percent).

In Sarasota County, with 100 percent of precincts reporting, Romney had 28,281 votes (51 percent), Gingrich had 15,142 (27 percent). Santorum had 14 percent (7,648), and had Paul 7 percent (3,898 votes), according to the Supervisor of Elections website. In DeSoto County, however Gingrich won with 39 percent to Romney’s 35.6 percent. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, the vote total was 578 for Gingrich to 524 for Romney. Santorum finished with 263 votes (18 percent), and Paul had 95 votes (6 percent).