Presidential Elections

One of my pet peeves has always been the way our country runs our presidential election. The way the electoral college is set up, to honor their pledge based on a winner take all methodology seems to pigeon hole states entire delegates one way or the other.

I have zero party allegiance. I have no problem voting for a Democrat or a Republican. What I have a problem with is that the states that I live in were voting Blue and while they say every vote matters, it doesn't. Connecticut has voted Blue by at minimum 10% in each election that I've been able to vote in and the same holds true in my freshly adopted state of Illinois.

This conundrum sparked my interest. How many other states have a long history of voting one way or the other? Which states actually flip or "swing" states if you will? So here are the findings or you can jump to the linked spreadsheet at the bottom of the page to poke around yourself.

Who is BLUE?
10 States have been BLUE for six straight elections (since H.W. Bush), while 7 more have been BLUE for seven straight elections (since 2nd term Reagan).  Minnesota is at a whopping 10 straight BLUE decisions and Washington D.C. has voted BLUE all thirteen times it has partook.

Who is RED?
7 states have been RED for four straight elections with another 2 states being RED for five straight. Those nine states voted for Bill in one election or the other.  4 states have been RED for nine straight elections (since Jimmy Carter).  Finally 9 states have been RED for twelve straight elections (since Lyndon B Johnson).

Who is SWING?
This leaves just 10 states who have voted both democrat and republican during the Bush & Obama elections.  Indiana and North Carolina were with Obama Round 1, but not with him Round 2.  Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, Florida, Nevada and Ohio were with Obama in both rounds and with G.W. for his 2nd election.  New Hampshire was with G.W. Round 1, but has been democrat the last three elections.

Who is SUPER SWING?
Of the 6 states to have gotten the last three elections "right", Iowa and New Mexico voted for Gore and lost.  Colorado and Virginia were with Dole and Florid was with H.W. Bush.  Then come election predictor states.  Nevada has slotted their delegates for nine consecutive elections to the president elect, last sending their delegates to Gerald Ford when he lost to Carter.  Finally, Ohio has slotted their delegates to the president elect for thirteen straight elections.  The last time Ohio gave their delegates to a loser was when they snubbed J.F.K. and gave their delegates to Richard Nixon instead.

Most of my analysis focused on the current streaks but the spreadsheet has each election year throughout history if you care to peruse.  You can see things like when the south flipped from democrat to republican. When Vermont, a state that voted Republican every year from 1856-1988, minus just 1964, all of a sudden became a Blue State in 1992. And the bloodbatth that was Reagan vs. Mondale in '88.

Presidential Candidates Spreadsheet