WP: Partisan Polarization Intensified in 2004 Election [View All]

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Partisan Polarization Intensified in 2004 Election
Only 59 of the Nation's 435 Congressional Districts Split Their Vote for President and House

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page A04

Political polarization intensified during the 2004 elections, continuing a trend that has defined voting behavior for most of the past decade and that has left the two major parties increasingly homogenized and partisan.

Only 59 of the 435 congressional districts went in different directions in presidential and House elections last year, according to newly released data from the political analysis firm Polidata. In the remaining districts, voters either backed both President Bush and the Republican House candidate or John F. Kerry and the Democratic House candidate.

The findings came as no surprise to election experts but as confirmation of patterns that now appear ingrained in American politics. In 2000, there were 86 such "split-ticket" districts, and in 1992 and 1996, there were more than 100 such districts.

The steady decline in districts where voters pick different parties to represent them in the White House and Congress reflects in part the effects of the redistricting process, which has created more and more strongly Republican or strongly Democratic districts. But the trend also underscores what political scientists and party strategists have known for several years, which is that party identification is now a powerful indicator of how someone votes in national elections.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7793-2005Mar28.html