Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, 2012

Elections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2012 proceeded according to rules most recently revised in July 2010. As in the past, the Baseball Writers' Association of America voted by mail to select from a ballot of recently retired players, with results announced on January 9, 2012. The Golden Era Committee, the second of three new era committees established by the July 2010 rules change, replacing the Veterans Committee, convened early in December 2011 to select from a Golden Era ballot of retired players and non-playing personnel who made their greatest contributions to the sport between 1947 and 1972, called the "Golden Era" by the Hall of Fame.

The induction class consists of Ron Santo, elected by the Golden Era Committee, and Barry Larkin, elected by the BBWAA.

The induction ceremonies were held on July 22, 2012 at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. On July 21, the Hall presented two awards for media excellence—its own Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasters and the BBWAA's J. G. Taylor Spink Award for writers.

The BBWAA ballot was announced on November 30, 2011. The BBWAA was authorized to elect players active in 1992 or later, but not after 2006; the ballot included candidates from the 2011 ballot who received at least 5% of the vote but were not elected, along with selected players, chosen by a screening committee, whose last playing appearance was in 2006. All 10-year members of the BBWAA were eligible to vote.

The ballot consisted of the 14 candidates who received at least 5% of the vote in the 2011 election, plus 13 first-time candidates. Voters were instructed to cast votes for up to 10 candidates. Under BBWAA rules, write-in votes were not permitted.

Results of the 2011 election by the BBWAA were announced on January 9, 2012. A total of 573 ballots were cast (including nine ballots which supported no candidates), with 430 votes required for election. A total of 2,921 individual votes were cast, an average of 5.10 per ballot - the lowest rate ever. Any candidate who received votes on at least 75% of the ballots would be inducted. Those candidates who received less than 5% of the vote will not appear on future BBWAA ballots, but may eventually be considered by the Veterans Committee.

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