Red Vote, Blue Vote

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If we look at regions that relate to Red States and Blue States, the relationship matches up with the stereotypes we often find in pop culture (which is disproportionately produced in Blue States.)  If you look at the state level data, the relationship weakens, as the averages of Red States and Blue States converge. At the level of individual voters, the relationship both disappears and re-emerges. The average Kerry voter scored no different than the average Bush voter (6.48 vs. 6.49 -- Bush voters were microscopically ahead.) But the variation among Kerry voters was greater than the variation among Bush voters (a standard deviation of 1.97 for Kerry vs. a standard deviation of 1.79 for Bush.) The Kerry distribution had fat tails. At the top end, there were more high scoring Democrats than Republicans. Blacks filled out the ranks at the bottom of the Democratic distribution.