For Those of Who Don't Live in a Big American City

[alcibiades_mystery]

Just to give you a flavor of it, the Chicago v. New York comparison. Mind you, I grew up in NYC and still consider it home, but I live in Chicago.

Obama won Cook county by 393,489 votes out of 991,041 cast.

Clinton won the five combined counties that make up New York City by 112,716 out of 892,269 cast.

This isn't an Obama or Clinton post. It's a post about the sheer numbers in our cities as compared to some states.

[lurky]

1. Much higher turnout in Cook County

as a proportion of total population. Interesting.

[MADem]

2. Drunken Giants fans at the parade? Horrible weather? NT

[lurky]

9. Weather was a bit wet, but warm.

There were a lot of people at the parade, but that doesn't account for a half-million fewer votes.

My best guess is that it's because Cook County includes Chicago and surrounding suburbs, while NYC is only the urban core. I'm thinking suburbanites may be more prone to vote, as well as more likely to be US citizens (36% of NYC residents are foreign-born).

[MADem]

10. Well, that sounds plausible. In the old days, the difference would be ascribed

to cemetery residents exercising their franchise!

[girl gone mad]

3. I love Chicago.

I think they're feeling the hope. :)

In my experience, Chicago is a more politically active town than NYC.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. Cook County really bigger turnout than the five boroughs? Wow.

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. Well, the vote total was higher...but that's not necessarily indiciative of...

Aw hell. It's a Chicago thing...

[CreekDog]

5. Obama and Hillary are near parity in the 7+million Bay Area

There is more to this but we don't know all the variables. We THINK we know them, but what's going on is more complex and the deciding factors for voters are evolving and even affecting their choices. Surprisingly, it appears race and gender are becoming less and less important factors in people's decisions. I think that is because as people are exposed to the campaign, they are beginning to become familiar (to the extent they can) with each candidate and are having to pay attention to things other than race and gender in order to make a decision.

I'm beginning to like what this portends.

This can be a good thing and it's a bad time to decide that Hillary can't win here or there or that those people can't bring themselves to vote for a black man. Instead, let's focus on which one is the best at getting what we want done (getting elected to do it and getting it done once elected).

[EFerrari]

7. How did the voting go? Didn't Cook Co. have all kinds of problems

in 2006?

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Dunno. Didn't vote

:-)