Anomalies in Red and Blue II: Towards an understanding of the roles of setting, values, and demography in the 2004 and 2008 U.S. presidential elections

Counties identified as anomalous in the 2004 US presidential election – large metropolitan counties and majority–minority counties that voted Republican and non and small-metropolitan counties that voted Democratic, are the subject of a qualitative analysis to assess why they were exceptions to the conventional wisdom of a Red and Blue America polarized along metropolitan–non-metropolitan and modern versus traditional dimensions. Contacts with professional colleagues, and with media and partisan representatives, and visits to selected counties provided valuable insights and helped us to assess the extent to which the county votes in 2008 reinforced or changed the broad Red and Blue dimensions derived from 2000 to 2004.

► Anomalous counties, voting contrary to conventional wisdom, were analyzed.
► Professional and media informants provided explanations for anomalous voting patterns.
► Presidential election results for 2008 were compared to those for 2004 in light of the analysis of anomalous counties.
► The Red and Blue traditional to modern and metropolitan to non-metropolitan dimensions of the American electorate were confirmed.