Based on the data we collected while completing this assignment, it can be concluded that the majority of Texas voters are Republicans. Yet we learned by reading our books that even though Republicans tend to vote more than Democrats, that does not mean that there are actually more Republicans than Democrats. While doing this assignment, I was actually surprised at how many Democrats there are in Texas. For example, in the 1996 General Election, Republican Bob Dole received 48.8% of the votes in Texas while Democrat Bill Clinton received 43.9% of the votes. This was obviously a very close race. And, since Democrats statistically are less likely to vote than Republicans, it may even indicate that there are more (or at least as many) Democrats in Texas as Republicans. Or perhaps it is just that Texas Independents favored Clinton over Dole.
Democratic Donkey - Caricature
Democratic Donkey - Caricature
Democratic Donkey - CaricatureThe 2000 Election however was not nearly as close in Texas. In our state, Democrat Al Gore received only 37.98% of the vote while Republican (and then Governor) George Bush received 59.29% of the vote. And although Third Party candidate Ralph Nader did not even come close to winning the election, I was still surprised to see that he received 2.15% of the vote. To me, that seems like a lot for a candidate that is not part of either major party.
I was also surprised at the number of people that don't even vote in the Presidential Elections. For example, in the 2000 election only 85.5% of the voting age population was registered to vote, and of those 85.5%, only 51.8% actually voted. The number of voters was even less in the 1998 Governors Race. Of the 81.9% of the voting age population registered to vote, only 32.4% actually voted! These figures are really...