Barr Outpolled Obama in Grant County, North Dakota
December 9th, 2008The vote for president in Grant County, North Dakota, last month, was: McCain 587, Barr 297, Obama 280, Baldwin 148, Nader 17. There were also 22 write-ins, but no one made a record of whom they were cast for.
These results were verified by a phone call to the County Auditor (in North Dakota, county Auditors handle elections). The person who answered the phone retrieved the records, looked at them for about a minute, and then said they are correct. These returns are on the North Dakota Secretary of State’s webpage, but sometimes errors occur. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in this instance.
Grant County has four precincts. Further research will be undertaken to see if the unusually strong vote for Barr and Baldwin was centered in one particular part of the county. Thanks to Austin Cassidy for this interesting news. Grant County in past elections had been moderately more supportive of the Libertarian Party, and also of the Constitution Party, then other North Dakota counties, but not markedly so. Grant County is in southwestern North Dakota. North Dakota has always been one of the strongest states in the country for presidential candidates who are opposed to military action overseas.
In 2004, Grant County voted overwhelmingly for President George W. Bush.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Here’s some info about Grant County:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_County%2C_North_Dakota
This is interesting, I wonder what, besides hard work by local third party activists, makes Grant County so friendly to such candidates. The Wikipedia site is really bare-bones.
A plurality of religious adherents there are Lutheran, as this map attests. I don’t know how or if that’s relevant, but there it is.
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/237-regionalism-and-religiosity/
December 9th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
“North Dakota has always been one of the strongest states in the country for presidential candidates who are opposed to military action overseas.”
“In 2004, Grant County voted overwhelmingly for President George W. Bush.”
Ummmm…?
December 9th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Precinct by Precinct results
McCain: 67/5/374/141 – 587
Obama: 35/15/167/63 – 280
Baldwin: 4/140/1/3 – 148
Barr: 1/291/1/4 – 297
Nader: 1/4/3/9 – 17
If you believe the posted results, Barr won 291 of his 297 votes from one precinct. And Chuck Baldwin won 140 of 140 votes from the same precinct.
Yeah right.
It’s an error. No doubt about it.
December 9th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
2004 results from Grant County: Bush 952, Kerry 264, Peroutka 6, Badnarik 4, Nader 16
Bush won 62-20 in Precinct 2 in 2004.
You can access 2004 precinct XML totals here: http://web.apps.state.nd.us/sec/emspublic/gp/precinct/downloadprecinct.htm?showMap=N&cmd=Search&electionDate=11022004&searchType=LEG&downloadType=COUNTY
2008 totals are here: http://web.apps.state.nd.us/sec/emspublic/gp/precinct/downloadprecinct.htm?showMap=N&cmd=Search&electionDate=11042008&searchType=LEG&downloadType=COUNTY
December 9th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
No, I don’t think it’s an error. It could be that an extended family dominates that precinct, or a particular church. As Wikipedia noted, correctly, this county was Pat Buchanan’s 5th best county in the United States in the November 2000 election. And the county auditor took a careful look and said it’s correct.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
These numbers are insane though… it looks like they flipped Barr/Baldwin and McCain/Obama in the 2nd precinct.
What sort of machines were they using?
December 9th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Looks like Nader had a nice 8.8% showing in Penn…. which looks legit.
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2008&fips=42087&f=1&off=0&elect=0
December 9th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
It’s an error. The results in a preliminary report from the Grant County elections department showed the Barr total as the current McCain total, and the Baldwin total as the current Obama total. Somewhere along the line between transferring results to the SOS office and certification the numbers got flipped.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:41 am
I am not suprised that this happened in North Dakota. Barr for a day won North Dakota on an AOL Straw Poll.
December 10th, 2008 at 6:22 am
THIS IS A GREAT ERROR. LET US FACE FACTS BARR WAS A FLOP JUST KIKE ALL LP CANDIDATES . ONLY ED CLARK IN 1980 MADE A DECENT SHOWING.THIRD PARTIES ARE A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.SCREWED UP VOTE TOTALS AFTER AV ELECTION ARE AS COMMON AS THE COLD.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Good for Bob Barr. Some people still care about liberty and freedom.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Here the results for this county from 1992-2004:
1992
Rep 900 45.9%
Ind 629 32.1%
Dem 415 21.2%
Other 15 0.8%
1996
Rep 760 55.5%
Dem 300 21.9%
Ref 295 21.5%
Other 14 1.0%
2000
Rep 1,077 75.47%
Dem 235 16.47%
Ref 80 5.61%
Ind 27 1.89%
Other 8 0.56%
2004
Rep 952 76.65%
Dem 264 21.26%
Ind 16 1.29%
Other 10 0.80%
The others in 2000 were Phillips, Browne, and Hagelin. Of these Browne got 0.14% or two votes. The others in 2004 were Peroutka, Badnarik, and a write-in named Martin Wishnatsky (who got no votes). The Independent in 1992 was Perot; in 2000 and 2004 the Independent was Nader. The 2000 and 2004 results are from the Secretary of State’s website. The 1992 and 1996 results are from David Leip’s website – he doesn’t identify the others from 1992 or 1996.
From looking at the results, it appears there’s some history of 3rd party support in the area. However, my guess for this year’s result is that the Barr voters were folks who didn’t like McCain, but didn’t like Obama, ether.
December 10th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
well that’s kind of how 3rd party supporters vote cause they don’t like the main 2.