Some fascinating California data. [View All]

I have discovered something I consider to be very odd in the election results from California this year. Two rural Republican counties voted for Kerry: Mono County and Alpine County.

To be sure, both counties are very small - Mono County has only 6,972 registered voters and Alpine, a scant 827.

But Mono County has 8% more registered Republicans than Democrats and Alpine has 2% more registered Republicans.

Here are some detailed figures:

Alpine County
Registered Democrats - 286
Registered Republicans - 303
Registered Independents - 190
Other - 48

Mono County
Registered Democrats - 2208
Registered Republicans - 2724
Registered Independents - 1574
Other - 466

Election Returns 2004
Alpine County
Kerry - 373
Bush - 311
Other - 15

Mono County
Kerry - 2628
Bush - 2621
Other - 81

Now, let's look at the Election Returns from 2000
Alpine County
Gore - 265
Bush - 281
Nader - 25
Other - 15

Mono County
Gore - 1788
Bush - 2296
Nader - 230
Other - 57

So it would seem that Kerry outpaced Gore in these two counties, and overtook Bush to score a Democratic victory in these rural Republican strongholds.

If you think about it, the way in which Kerry seemed to capture the Nader votes and perhaps a larger share of the independents than Gore is indicative of how the nationwide election SHOULD HAVE gone.

Another thing I find odd is that Inyo County, which is just south of Mono County, also shifted towards Kerry, although Bush still captured it.

What's more, these three counties all border on the state of Nevada. And yet, with the exception of Clark County (Las Vegas), not one other county in the entire state of Nevada went for Kerry. Even counties like White Pine, which have more registered Democrats than Republicans, went for Bush.

So two rural Republican counties in California which border on Nevada went for Kerry, but every single county in Nevada, except for Clark County went for Bush? I simply find that odd.