Hey guys, I have been reading the Kos almost daily for over half a year but this is my first diary entry. I guess I never knew what I really could write about with authority and enjoyed my lurker status.
The DailyKos Electoral Map was simply awesome. With so many races going on, and so many exciting ones, it really was the best way to stay on top of things. In the weeks since I have been visiting the map to see how the few remaining races develop. At the same time, I am a geography nut and I just love coasting around and checking out the different districts and seeing who won what. It is great how much information can be found on this fantastic map and I would like to share some of that with you.
This information I don't think is particularly important. This is totally for fun. Maybe some of you lovely Kossacks have a similar taste for useless but interesting facts. So here it goes:
Let's start with the biggest race of them all, Obama verse McCain. What state gave the most votes to Obama? California of course, with 7,348,459 votes. Which state voted the most for McCain? Texas of course, with 4,467,748 votes. This is incorrect actually, as a commenter duly noted. McCain actually received the most votes from California as well!But what state voted the highest percent for Obama? His home state of Hawaii where he won 72% of the vote. McCain's highest percentage win was in Oklahoma where he won 66% of the vote. The closest state will be Missouri although it is still too close to call, but most likely to go for McCain. The closest race that has been called is North Carolina where both candidate received 50% of the vote.
That info was pretty easy and quick to find. But what about at the county level? I thought that was a pretty cool and unique feature to the Election Map. What county gave Obama the most votes? Why the most populated county in the country of course, Los Angeles County, where he won 2,027,143 votes which was 69% of the vote. The county with the most votes for McCain, Maricopa County Arizona with 675,027 or 55% of the vote. This was also incorrect, McCain also received the most votes from Los Angeles County. How about the county that voted the least for Obama? King County Texas where he received only 8 votes! Of course, this represented 5% of the vote, so not a lot of people in this one. McCain won this county by getting 93% of the vote, which was his largest percentage win of any county in the country. And how about the county that gave McCain the least amount of votes? That would be Loving County Texas where he received 67 votes. However he ended up winning this county by 85%. Both of these counties have extremely small populations, Loving County is in fact the least populated county in the country.
However, what was truly amazing was the county that had the largest percentage win for Obama, Prince George's County of Maryland. This is a well-populated county, the one adjacent to Washington D.C., and it went 89% for Obama, with a total of 323,105 votes. What is even more amazing is the percentage Obama one the District of Columbia, which is not technically a county, but a major metropolitan area, by a whopping 93%! How interesting that McCain's biggest victory in terms of percent was from one of the least populated counties in the country and Obama's comes from one of our major cities.
Let's move to the senatorial races. Because we are still in the midst of a tight recount in Minnesota and a run-off in Georgia, I won't talk about close races. The Democratic nominee that received the most total votes was Dick Durbin of Illinois who received a total of 3,516,848 which amounted to 68% of the vote. Interestingly, the Democratic senate nominee who received the second most total votes, Rick Noriega did not win his bid for the Texas senate seat. This comes to our Republican who received the most total votes, John Cornyn of Texas, who got a total of 4,326,639 votes.
What about percentage wise? The Democratic senate nominee who received the highest percent of the vote was Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who received 79% of the vote. However Mark did not have a Republican challenger, so that's not all that impressive. The best showing for a Democrat who actually had some competition was Jack Reed of Rhode Island who won 73% of the vote. The highest percentage for a Republican nominee was Mike Enzi of Wyoming who got 76% of the vote.
In the House of Representative races the Democratic nominee who got the highest percentage victory was Jose Serrano of New York's 16th District (the Bronx). Jose got 97% of the vote, however it should be noted that this district also had the lowest turnout of any district in the country, at a lowly 116 thousand voters. The second lowest district turnout was the district encompassing downtown Los Angeles, California's 34th District.
The highest percentage victory for a Republican nominee was Jerry Moran of Kansas' 1st District, which encompasses the western three fourths of the state. Jerry won 82% of the vote.
And what about turnout? As mentioned before, the 16th District of New York had the lowest, and the highest? Well the whole state of Montana is technically one District and they had by far the highest turnout, with 478 thousand voting in their House race, which unfortunately was won by the bad guys.
Now I know I could do a lot more with all the information this truly excellent Election Map provides us. The sole purpose of this diary is to provide a little entertainment to those who like learning new and somewhat useless information. I hope you enjoyed it.