Smart Politics: Illinois Archives

By Eric Ostermeier on February 5, 2008

5:02 p.m. Last polls close in Illinois at 7:00 p.m. CST. The Democrats will allocate 153 of its 185 convention delegates proportionally from the primary vote today: 100 are allocated based on the state's 19 Congressional districts, while 53 are allocated based on the statewide vote. Republicans will allocate 57...

Governor vs. Governor vs. Governor

May 16, 2012

The last election cycle saw five ex-governors attempt to win back their old jobs, with success stories in California (Jerry Brown), Iowa (Terry Branstad), and Oregon (John Kitzhaber). But in 1904, the State of Wisconsin saw three governors on the general election ballot: two-term Republican incumbent Robert La Follette, former two-term Democratic Governor William Peck (elected in 1890 and 1892), and former two-term Republican Governor Edward Scofield (elected in 1896 and 1898). La Follette - with Teddy Roosevelt at the top of the ticket winning the presidency - cruised to an 11.3-point victory over Peck with 50.5 percent of the vote. Scofield ran a distant fourth on the National Republican ticket with just 2.7 percent - also losing to Social Democrat William Arnold who received 5.5 percent, but beating Prohibition and Socialist Labor candidates.

A Vote for No One

May 9, 2012

More than 50,000 North Carolina residents who voted in the Tuesday's Republican presidential primary opted for 'no preference' on their ballot, or 5.2 percent. That marks the second highest percentage of those who have done so in the 40 years of the modern primary era, behind the 9.8 percent who indicated no preference during George H.W. Bush's rout over Pat Buchanan in the state twenty years ago in 1992. In 2008, 4.0 percent were likewise noncommittal, with 1.7 percent voting no preference in 2000, 3.8 percent in 1996, 1.0 percent in 1988, 2.7 percent in 1980, and 1.7 percent in 1976.

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