Here’s another fun map, this time of turnout by county for the 2014 general elections in North Carolina. As you can see, there are a few regional patterns but as a whole the colors look pretty random.
The five counties with the best turnout:
1. Alleghany (59.84%)
2. Yancey (59.35%)
3. Chatham (58.97%)
4. Pamlico (57.68%)
5. Beaufort (54.93%)
Two small mountain counties top the list, followed by Chatham, which always posts good turnout rates. Pamlico and Beaufort also reported strongly; for some reason the entire Pamlico Sound region saw a lot of voters come out to the polls. I would say that’s because the area saw both a competitive NC Senate race and a competitive NC House race, but that doesn’t explain Pamlico County, which saw neither.
And the five counties with the worst turnout:
96. Cumberland (37.38%)
97. Pasquotank (36.27%)
98. Hoke (34.56%)
99. Robeson (33.82%)
100. Onslow (32.72%)
All of these, with the exception of Onslow at the very bottom, are counties that tend to vote Democratic. Cumberland, Hoke, and Onslow have substantial military populations, which also skew younger, explaining the low turnout rate there. Both Robeson and Pasquotank have large nonwhite populations and also are the site of two universities, Elizabeth City State and Pembroke.
Probably the most significant statistic is the low turnout rate in Mecklenburg County – 38.89%, seventh from the bottom. Partisan turnout figures will need to be examined to determine what happened there, but in the richest source for Democratic votes in the state, it’s probably not a good thing for Kay Hagan that Mecklenburg voters failed to show up.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
Beaufort County had an election for a new Sheriff. One Black candidate; One White Candidate. The high turnout was inevitable regardless of who you supported.
Dude…stop! Find something else to harp and harp and harp on…..the election and related stats just are not and were not that interesting in November they sure as hell aren’t now. I am sure some of your GOP folks can provide you with something to enlighten us with that is just wham bang interesting.
I believe voter turn out is very important for a healthy democratic republic.
I ‘hear’ you ….. AND…..I wonder what one might do if one wanted a better turnout in 2016? I ‘hear’ you now saying “quit harping about the 2014 turnout”….. if we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll just get what we got (or worse) in 2014. ? No progress possible??
I imagine many Democrats usually wish Mecklenburg had voter turnout that matched Wake….it seems like Mecklenburg is usually a bit of an underacheiver, especially in non presidential years…