November 12, 2004
Harris County canvass report is out

Like Greg, I'll be spending some time this weekend checking out the Harris County canvass report to see what I can learn. One quick point of interest for me is in Precincts 003 and 004, which cover my neighborhood.



2004 Presidential election



Precinct   Bush    Pct   Kerry   Pct   Total votes  Reg voters  Turnout

003         634   41.4     852  55.7          1530        2129     71.9

004         442   36.1     747  61.0          1224        1749     70.0





2000 Presidential election



Precinct   Bush    Pct    Gore   Pct   Total votes  Reg voters  Turnout

003         490   41.8     541  46.1          1173        2006     58.5

004         393   35.4     574  51.7          1111        1836     60.5

Nader got 123 and 124 votes, for 10.5 and 11.2%, in 003 and 004, respectively, in 2000. He got five votes in each precinct this time, with David Cobb getting one in 003 and none in 004 (way to build the Green Party, Ralph!). Badnarik got 25 votes in 003 and 15 in 004. I think Kerry could and should have done a little better in these precincts, especially given his yard sign dominance, but overall I don't think one can be too unhappy with those totals. More later as I get a chance to do a little mining.

(By the way, would it kill anyone in Bev Kaufman's office to make this stuff available for download in Excel or some kind of database-friendly format? I'm just asking.)

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 12, 2004 to Election 2004 | TrackBack
Comments

Thanks for the link. Lots of good info here.

On quick inspection, our precinct (260) had a great turnout but, unfortunately, voted 2.5 to 1 for Bush. Clearly I live on the wrong side of town!

Posted by: elizabeth on November 12, 2004 10:43 AM

Yeah, this format wasn't all that easy to use. In my browser, some of the navigation arrows were cut off so I couldn't figure out how to get to my precinct (356).

For what it's worth, our precinct broke down as: Bush 1377, Kerry 713, Badnarik 17 (2 coming from our household), Nader 3, Cobb 1.

Posted by: Tim on November 12, 2004 12:47 PM

Ages ago, I emailed their office, and they seemed more than happy to try and provide data in a format that was more useful to me. I didn't ultimately follow up because the project I had in mind never materialized, but you might find they're more helpful if you just ask for what you'd like. :)

Posted by: kevin whited on November 12, 2004 1:03 PM

I may do that, and I'm sure they will be helpful if I ask. I still think they ought to make that kind of data available without having to ask, though.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on November 12, 2004 2:53 PM

One possible problem with the yard sign survey was that we Republicans had to pay $5 per Bush/Cheney sign. Did Democrats have to pay for them?

Posted by: Rob Booth (Slightly Rough) on November 12, 2004 5:59 PM

Yes, but only $3/sign. Make of that what you will. :-)

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on November 12, 2004 6:41 PM

I followed your link, and found that the webmaster has put up a (Nixonian expletive deleted) graphic, instead of a table that could reasonably be imported into a database or spreadsheet. I'll try hard not to speculate on their parentage.

Once, a few years ago, I requested data from the county for my political club's seven precincts, only to receive a voter list in which the addresses lacked apartment numbers. If that isn't hostile to Democrats, I don't know what is. To their credit, they supplied me with corrected data when I requested it... but only when I requested it. An honest mistake? I report, you decide.

Posted by: Steve Bates on November 16, 2004 12:25 AM