Red States and Blue States - Divide

Divide

Although the Electoral College determines the Presidential election, a more precise measure of how the country actually voted may be better represented by either a county-by-county or a district-by-district map. By breaking the map down into smaller units (including many "blue counties" lying next to "red counties"), these maps tend to display many states with a purplish hue, thus demonstrating that an ostensibly "blue" or "red" state may, in fact, be closely divided. Note that election maps of all kinds are subject to errors of interpretation.

These county-by-county and district-by-district maps reveal that the "true" nature of the divide is between urban areas/inner suburbs and suburbs/rural areas. For example, in the 2008 elections, even in "solidly blue" states, the majority of voters in most rural counties voted for Republican John McCain (good examples would be Minnesota, New York, and Maryland), with some exceptions. In "solidly red" states, a majority of voters in most urban counties voted for Democrat Barack Obama, good examples for this would be Dallas County, Texas and Fulton County, Georgia (the homes of major U.S. cities Dallas and Atlanta). Both provided Obama with double-digit margins of victory over McCain. An even more detailed precinct-by-precinct breakdown demonstrates that in many cases, large cities voted for Obama, but their suburbs were divided.

Red states and blue states have several demographic differences from each other. The association between colors and demographics was notably made in a column by Mike Barnicle, and reinforced in a controversial response from Paul Begala, though the association between demographics and voting patterns was well known before that.

In the 2008 elections, both parties received at least 40% from all sizable socio-economic demographics, except that McCain (Republican) received 37% from voters earning $15K-$30K, and 25% from voters earning under $15K, according to exit polling. In 2008, college graduates were split equally; those with postgraduate degrees voted for Obama by an 18% margin. By household income, Obama got a majority of households with less than $50,000 in annual income. McCain got a slight majority (52% to 47%) of households consisting of married couples; Obama led 2:1 (65% to 33%) among unmarried voters. McCain held the more suburban and rural areas of both the red and blue states, while Obama received the large majority of the urban city areas in all the states. Ralph Nader did not win any electoral college votes, yet received 2% of the vote of voters from high income households and voters with graduate degrees.

• Party control of Governors' offices (as of January 2011) Democratic Governor Republican Governor Independent Governor

• Percentage of members of the House of Representatives from each party by state (as of May 2010)

• States in blue voted for Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election, while states in red voted for Republican John McCain

Source: CNN exit polls Marital status: MSNBC exit polls

In terms of age, gender, and marital status, it is thought young adults under age 40 went for Obama. More married men voted for McCain, but more single men voted for Obama. The same went for women, but a higher percentage of women voted for Obama than McCain. The main constituency for McCain was white middle-aged married males. In terms of religion, Protestant Christians were more likely to vote for McCain than Obama, whereas a higher rate of secular, Catholic and other religious votes went for Obama.

In terms of race, the race of the candidate did not significantly affect the voting patterns of white, Latino, and Asian voters as well as voters of other non-black races. In sharp contrast, approximately 19 out of 20 black voters voted for the black presidential candidate (Obama).