Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The five elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016) would be expressed as five-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
The "R R d r r" we have at the top of this section shows that the state voted strongly Republican in 2000 and 2004, flipped mildly Democratic in 2008 but swung back Republican in 2012 and 2016, though not as strongly Republican as previously. (This is North Carolina, by the way.)
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa - "d r d d r". In the last five elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican candidate in 2016 after voting Democratic in 2008 and 2012. Virginia ("r r d d d") has voted narrowly Democratic in the last three elections.
The BestPlaces team has generated a VoteWord for every state and county in the United States.
VoteWords
| Place |
VoteWord |
| United States | d r d d d |
|---|
| Alabama | R R R R R |
|---|
| Alaska | R R R R R |
|---|
| Arizona | r R r r r |
|---|
| Arkansas | r r R R R |
|---|
| California | D d D D D |
|---|
| Colorado | r r d d d |
|---|
| Connecticut | D D D D D |
|---|
| Delaware | D d D D D |
|---|
| District of Columbia | D D D D D |
|---|
| Florida | r r d d r |
|---|
| Georgia | R R r r r |
|---|
| Hawaii | D d D D D |
|---|
| Idaho | R R R R R |
|---|
| Illinois | D D D D D |
|---|
| Indiana | R R d R R |
|---|
| Iowa | d r d d r |
|---|
| Kansas | R R R R R |
|---|
| Kentucky | R R R R R |
|---|
| Louisiana | r R R R R |
|---|
| Maine | d d D D d |
|---|
| Maryland | D D D D D |
|---|
| Massachusetts | D D D D D |
|---|
| Michigan | d d D d r |
|---|
| Minnesota | d d D d d |
|---|
| Mississippi | R R R R R |
|---|
| Missouri | r r r r R |
|---|
| Montana | R R r R R |
|---|
| Nebraska | R R R R R |
|---|
| Nevada | r r D d d |
|---|
| New Hampshire | r d d d d |
|---|
| New Jersey | D d D D D |
|---|
| New Mexico | d r D D d |
|---|
| New York | D D D D D |
|---|
| North Carolina | R R d r r |
|---|
| North Dakota | R R r R R |
|---|
| Ohio | r r d d r |
|---|
| Oklahoma | R R R R R |
|---|
| Oregon | d d D D D |
|---|
| Pennsylvania | d d D d r |
|---|
| Rhode Island | D D D D D |
|---|
| South Carolina | R R r R R |
|---|
| South Dakota | R R r R R |
|---|
| Tennessee | r R R R R |
|---|
| Texas | R R R R r |
|---|
| Utah | R R R R R |
|---|
| Vermont | d D D D D |
|---|
| Virginia | r r d d d |
|---|
| Washington | d d D D D |
|---|
| West Virginia | r R R R R |
|---|
| Wisconsin | d d D d r |
|---|
| Wyoming | R R R R R |
|---|
About Sperling's BestPlaces
Sperling's BestPlaces (www.bestplaces.net) is the nation's premier source for demographic and place data. Founded by author and researcher Bert Sperling over thirty years ago, BestPlaces now helps over two million users a month make informed decisions about their own best places to live, work, and retire. Bert's bestselling books "Cities Ranked and Rated" and "Best Places to Raise Your Family" are published by John Wiley & Sons and he was tagged as the "The Guy Who Picks the Best Places" by the New York Times. Sperling's BestPlaces is responsible for more "Best Places" studies and research than any other single organization.