Small Counties

There are 1335 counties in the United States with a population less than 20,000 persons. This figure represents 42% of all counties in the United States. The combined population of these counties is 13,246,077 persons, or 4.7% of the population. Of these, Gore carried a total of 208 counties. The rest went to Bush.

The smallest county carried by Gore was Kenedy Texas, where Gore prevailed by 119 votes to 106 for Bush. The county is 19.33% non-Hispanic white (majority Hispanic). The second smallest is Taliaferro County Georgia. Gore won this county by a vote of 556-271. It is 37.99% non-Hispanic white (majoirty black). The third smallest county is Buffalo County, South Dakota (256-140). It is 18.5% non-Hispanic white (majority Native American). The smallest county with a majority Anglo white population to have been carried by Gore is Whitman County, Georgia (54.41% white, 542-348).The second smallest majority white population to be carried by Gore was Norton City, Virginia which is a strange political entity unique to Virginia. It is 91.79% white and went to Gore by 867-639 votes. The third smallest majority white county to go for Gore was Tyrrell County, North Carolina (54.71% white, 849-706).

81 of the counties with less than 20,000 people and a majority non-white population broke in favor of Gore. 43 such counties were carried by Bush. Of small counties with a majority white population, Gore carried 127, Bush carried the remaining 1192 counties.

I don't mean to overstate the significance of race (an issue I'll be covering later), but it would appear that it's not size per se which indicates voting preference. Within "rural America" (to the extent that our definition actually yields "rural" counties) there was a strong Republican preference in 2000. This preference is most especially marked in the case of majority white counties.

However, it doesn't appear that race is determinative of political preference. Later, I hope to probe some of the anomalous counties to see what more we can learn from them.

I also hope to discover how exactly it is that Loving County, Texas (pop. 67, America's smallest county) uniquely yielded a turnout rate of over 200% which broke in favor of Bush by 185%-43%...

I apologize for all the data-geekhood of all this... and realize that none of this is fully determinative. Right now, we're just circling around, looking at the broad trends. Later, we'll move on to some case studies and look at deeper at their attributes and histories.