Wednesday 25 April 2012

Ohio's voting record

In my post about US state nicknames, I wrote that I mistakenly thought Ohio to be nicknamed the "Bellwether State". I led myself into thinking that because of Ohio's ability to vote with the winning candidate of the presidential elections over 90% of the time.

Since 1896 onwards, Ohio has voted for the winner in all except two elections: 1944 and 1960. In 1944, Governor Thomas E. Dewey narrowly carried the state over President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and in 1960 Vice President Richard Nixon comfortably won the state over Senator John F. Kennedy; in addition, 1960 was the last time Ohio voted against the victor of an election.

Missouri had the best record of being a bellwether until the 2008 election, when it voted against the winner (although the state was incredibly close); before then the last two times it voted the opposite way to the victor was in 1956 and 1900...hence its lower win rate than Ohio. Despite Ohio's record, apparently the state with the better track is Nevada, as it has supported the winner in every election since 1912 except for 1976; however, if Nevada is put on the same timeline as Ohio, it voted against the winner in 1896, 1900, and 1908.

4 comments:

  1. Dewey defeats Truman - NYTimes story the day after the election!

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    1. Ah, the 1948 election. Yes, I like reading up about that one. I think you'll find it was the Chicago Tribune that printed the infamous headline. :)

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  2. Very interesting. I have a friend from Ohio; she says it's boring, but history tells me otherwise!

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    1. I've never been to the state, but it does sound interesting from the description. At any rate, 11,500,000+ people call it their home!

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