So, being the semi-professional political nerd that I am, I went over to CNN's website to look at the primary/caucus election results of this past Super Tuesday. I had noticed in previous similar elections this year that the number of people casting votes in the Democratic contests were nearly always greater than in the Republican contests.
So I went through & added up the number of votes cast for all the Democratic candidates & all those cast for the Republican candidates (including the non-committed or no preference votes) and here are a few little nuggets I found interesting:
Disclaimer: in the interest of full disclosure, some of the numbers from some of the states do not reflect 100% of the votes being counted, but nearly all of them showed 99% to 100% having been counted. For my purposes, these numbers are more than adequate.
So I went through & added up the number of votes cast for all the Democratic candidates & all those cast for the Republican candidates (including the non-committed or no preference votes) and here are a few little nuggets I found interesting:
Disclaimer: in the interest of full disclosure, some of the numbers from some of the states do not reflect 100% of the votes being counted, but nearly all of them showed 99% to 100% having been counted. For my purposes, these numbers are more than adequate.
- In the 17 states that held both a Democratic & a Republican primary or caucus (Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah), there were an unofficial total of 22,964,136 votes cast on Feb. 5.
- Of the nearly 23 million votes cast, over 63% (14,506,808) were cast in the Democratic race; the remaining 37% (8,457,328) were cast in the Republican race. That's over 6 million more votes (6,049,480) that were cast in the Democratic races!
- Of the 17 states with elections in both major parties, the Democrats had more voters in 15 of the 17! Only in McCain's home state of Arizona & in Republican Beehive Heaven, Utah, did more Republicans cast votes! Even in typically "red" states like Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota & Tennessee, more people voted in the Democratic contests!
- If you take the total number of votes received in these 17 states by all the candidates regardless of party affiliation, the Republican with the most overall votes, John McCain, would have come in at 3rd place. Both Hillary Clinton (with the most number of overall votes) & Barack Obama (with the 2nd highest total) earned more than TWICE the number of votes than McCain did!
- Even John Edwards, who bowed out of the race before Super Tuesday, got more votes (401,000+) than Ron Paul (381,000+), who is still a candidate.
Unofficial Totals Of Votes Cast,
Selected States,
Per Candidate,
In Super Tuesday Contests, 2/5/2008
Clinton
7,122,201
Obama
6,957,328
McCain
3,422,762
Romney
2,875,270
Huckabee
1,570,375
Edwards
401,744
Paul
381,641
Giuliani
198,185
Uncommitted/Other/No Preference
34,630
Selected States,
Per Candidate,
In Super Tuesday Contests, 2/5/2008
Clinton
7,122,201
Obama
6,957,328
McCain
3,422,762
Romney
2,875,270
Huckabee
1,570,375
Edwards
401,744
Paul
381,641
Giuliani
198,185
Uncommitted/Other/No Preference
34,630
So, it seems to me that there may be just a little more excitement (or, at least more voter interest) in the Democratic race. It may just be wishful thinking, but that seems to auger well for the donkeys...if they can take that interest & turn it into support in November! I really think that this is our race to lose...but you can't discount that. Democrats have had too much experience at losing their spine as well as their way. Still I hope...
2 comments:
Just so long as all of those Hillary or Obama supports will get behind the ONE that ends up getting the nomination...
What you say is true, Ms B! I'm hoping that the vast majority of those who voted specifically for either Hillary or Barack or John will still vote for the Democrat in November if their candidate does not wind up being the party's nominee. Of course, I could be wrong, but I'd have a hard time believing that any appreciable number of those voters would cast their sacred for John McCain if a different Dem got the nomination.
Bottom line...I think that the American people (at least those who are paying attention--and who, HOPEFULLY, vote) are so ready for something new, and since the elephants have been running rampant & have pulled all the levers of powers in recent years, people are more interested in what the Democrats have to offer. It doesn't hurt that, for the first time ever, our party has both a female & an African American who have a real chance to become president! Now that people are looking, I hope that the candidates are saying things that catch their ears AND their votes!!!
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