Perhaps hoping to avoid a Red County/Blue County debate, California's Secretary of State has release a county-by-county map showing results in red and green.
While I've objected to reports calling Arnold's victory a "landslide," I suppose a 17% spread is about as close as one is likely to get in a popular vote in a modern election. Certainly reports that the race was "too close to call" were ridiculous mischaracterizations of the poll results in an attempt to "get out the vote," as was CNN's constant title of "razor-thin" margins. I'm all in favor of high voter turnout, though, so I don't mind.
And the map is impressive. The map for recalling Gray Davis is slightly less lopsided, but a ten point spread is still reasonably hefty.
It's mildly amusing to see the clusters in the Bay Area. 80% against the recall? 63% for Bustamante? And people wonder why we still need an electoral college in nationwide elections!
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Oops! I forgot to include a link to the complete list of candidates with results.
2 - Bill Wallo
Let's not forget the fact that together, Arnold and McClintock actually got over 60% of the vote, an incredible statistic given California's general Democratic leaning. Rather wild statitics all together.
3 - Phillip Winn
Yes, Bill, and I've heard people spin that as a great victory for Republicans. It is, I suppose, but I don't know how transferable Arnold's votes might be to another Rep that isn't, well, Arnold.
4 - Phillip Winn
Another thing worth noting is that the number of people who voted 'No' on the recall was 3,540,573 (as of 2:13pm Oct 8, at least), while the number of people voting for Schwarzenegger was 3,694,436. Understanding that not all 'No' votes were actually votes in favor of Gray Davis, and that people could vote on one issue and not the other, or cast a ballot for both, Arnold still beat Gray straight up by just over 150,000 votes, or just under 2%.
5 - BJ
Maybe I'm being dense, but I don't think I understand your comment about needing an electoral college.
6 - Steve Rhodes
Yep, as much as I'd like the rational residents of San Francisco to control the politics in this country, it is pretty restricted to our own little oasis (though our ideas do tend to slowly percolate out to the rest of the country).
And you can't really blame us for Davis. Camejo came in second last fall with about 16% of the vote which was ahead of Simon. Camejo didn't do as well this time since many of us who would have voted for him voted for Bustamante in the fruitless hope we'd be able to stop Schwarzenegger.
7 - Phillip Winn
BJ (#5) I think that the first map highlights how clearly a small but populous region can make a big difference in the overall popular vote. In this case, it wasn't enough. But San Francisco and L.A. could have made the different, and there would have still been only two red splotches.
The same thing is the fear of what would happen without the electoral college. Campaining in a few large cities could mean the whole election, and all of the people in the "blue states" be darned.
Or, put another way, it demonstrates how completely out of touch one city can be with the rest of the voters.
8 - visualsimplicity
I think The Simpsons had already shown us the need of an electoral college, and on many occasions.