Some fascinating California data.

[ClintCooper2003]

I have discovered something I consider to be very odd in the election results from California this year. Two rural Republican counties voted for Kerry: Mono County and Alpine County.

To be sure, both counties are very small - Mono County has only 6,972 registered voters and Alpine, a scant 827.

But Mono County has 8% more registered Republicans than Democrats and Alpine has 2% more registered Republicans.

Here are some detailed figures:

Alpine County
Registered Democrats - 286
Registered Republicans - 303
Registered Independents - 190
Other - 48

Mono County
Registered Democrats - 2208
Registered Republicans - 2724
Registered Independents - 1574
Other - 466

Election Returns 2004
Alpine County
Kerry - 373
Bush - 311
Other - 15

Mono County
Kerry - 2628
Bush - 2621
Other - 81

Now, let's look at the Election Returns from 2000
Alpine County
Gore - 265
Bush - 281
Nader - 25
Other - 15

Mono County
Gore - 1788
Bush - 2296
Nader - 230
Other - 57

So it would seem that Kerry outpaced Gore in these two counties, and overtook Bush to score a Democratic victory in these rural Republican strongholds.

If you think about it, the way in which Kerry seemed to capture the Nader votes and perhaps a larger share of the independents than Gore is indicative of how the nationwide election SHOULD HAVE gone.

Another thing I find odd is that Inyo County, which is just south of Mono County, also shifted towards Kerry, although Bush still captured it.

What's more, these three counties all border on the state of Nevada. And yet, with the exception of Clark County (Las Vegas), not one other county in the entire state of Nevada went for Kerry. Even counties like White Pine, which have more registered Democrats than Republicans, went for Bush.

So two rural Republican counties in California which border on Nevada went for Kerry, but every single county in Nevada, except for Clark County went for Bush? I simply find that odd.

[sandnsea]

1. Oregon kept our Nader voters

We kept all our Dems & Nader voters. I don't understand why so many other states didn't either.

[Name removed]

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[thjay]

4. I know something about Alpine

It's a rural horse community East of San Diego. It also has a large Indian reservation with a successful casino. Most interesting though is that our local Air America morning host lives there. He started off on a conservative radio talk show in SD and moved over to Air America when it started up about 6 months ago. It's possible that his popularity and public voice had a positive impact on the voting choice of his neighbors.

[ClintCooper2003]

7. Actually, I believe we're talking about two different areas....

Alpine county is rather far northeast of San Diego county by about two hundred miles I believe. It borders on Nevada and is at least 100 miles north of San Bernardino county.

[rumpel]

5. I know. ilove Alpine

I had no idea where "Alpine"was,when I did my chart, but it was the ONLY county out of 58, that had the same number of people voting for Boxer and Kerry.
I love Alpine for that, and I congratullate them.
It is the smallest county :)

[glitch]

6. This is very interesting. Probably represents the real Kerry margin

we all know some republicans who weren't voting for Bush. So where did the extra 9 million bush voters come from?

from http://verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&state=California
Alpine - Sequoia Datavote (punchcard)
Mono - Sequoia Optech (optical scan)
Inyo - Sequoia Datavote

It would also be interesting to compare the margins in all the counties by machine type and vendor.
Just to see if Bushes margins improved under certain vendors.