Final Presidential vote tally (including overseas votes) and candidate expenditure

(source)

The final vote tally, including the overseas votes, is:

Tony Tan                     745,693 (35.20%)

Tan Cheng Bock          738,311 (34.85%)

Tan Jee Say                  530,441 (25.04%)

Tan Kin Lian                104,095 (4.91%)

Total valid votes        2,118,540

Rejected votes                 37,849

Total votes cast          2,156,389

A mere 0.348% of valid votes separates Tony Tan from Tan Cheng Bock. This margin of victory is even narrower than the 0.516% of national popular votes that separated Al Gore (winner in popular votes) from George W. Bush (winner in electoral votes, hence the elected President) in the 2000 US presidential election (source).  However, it is far wider than the astonishing 0.009% that separates the Florida popular votes of Bush and Gore in the same election (source).

Candidate Expenditure

(source)

Getting their names and faces out to the electorate within the nine-day campaign period was a top priority for all four candidates in the August Presidential Election, with advertising and printing of promotional materials constituting the bulk of their expenses.

The expenses filed by the candidates were made available for inspection at the Elections Department on October 4, 2011.

The top spender was Dr Tan Cheng Bock, who spent S$585,045.03 on his campaign. More than 86 per cent of that went to traditional publicity material like posters, as well as novel means such as smartphone apps.

President Tony Tan Keng Yam was the next highest spender at S$503,070.

58 per cent was spent on promotional material, such as the ubiquitous black-framed-spectacle magnets and caps, and some S$50,000 on new media advertisements, such as those found on Google and Facebook.

Mr Tan Jee Say spent more than S$162,337, with nearly 45 per cent of it on advertising and publicity.

Mr Tan Kin Lian was the leanest spender, doling out about S$70,912.16 on his campaign, or merely 3 cents on each of the 2.27 million registered voters.

Related: The financially savviest PE candidate of them all (here)