Monday, November 19, 2012

Whitman County more blue than surrounding counties

Counting late ballots, Whitman County is now (as of last Friday) tipped over into the yes on Referendum 74 to legalize gay marriage in Washington State. Hurray.

Moot point anyway since 74 won statewide due to the big population in King County that was in favor. Nice to see Whitman join the yes side however. The only county to vote yes east of Cascade Mountains. I grew up in Whitman County where Pullman is located. A college town. Interesting to note that the county seat is not Pullman, it's Colfax, but Pullman is where most of Whitman County's population resides. Home of Washington State University.

One of my high school teachers called Pullman "the Athens of the Palouse." Whatcom County is in the yes category also. Whatcom is where Bellingham is located. I now live in Bellingham. Ref. 74 was strong in urban areas, such as around Seattle, but more weak in rural areas. Most of the land area of the state voted no, but land doesn't vote, people vote. It's kind of like red states versus blue states only it's red counties versus blue counties. Looking more closely (like at the precinct level), much of Whatcom County is more red, but urban Bellingham weighs heavy in the blue.

Source: vote.wa.gov/results/current. Very interesting to look around on that site and see how various election results played out for different measures and candidates by county in Washington State.

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