Romney Got No Votes In 59 Philadelphia Precincts?
According to preliminary results, Mitt Romney got absolutely no votes in 59 of Philadelphia’s most heavily African-American precincts:
It’s one thing for a Democratic presidential candidate to dominate a Democratic city like Philadelphia, but check out this head-spinning figure: In 59 voting divisions in the city, Mitt Romney received not one vote. Zero. Zilch.
These are the kind of numbers that send Republicans into paroxysms of voter-fraud angst, but such results may not be so startling after all.
“We have always had these dense urban corridors that are extremely Democratic,” said Jonathan Rodden, a political science professor at Stanford University. “It’s kind of an urban fact, and you are looking at the extreme end of it in Philadelphia.”
Most big cities are politically homogeneous, with 75 percent to 80 percent of voters identifying as Democrats.
Cities are not only bursting with Democrats: They are easier to organize than rural areas where people live far apart from one another, said Sasha Issenberg, author of The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns.
“One reason Democrats can maximize votes in Philadelphia is that it’s very easy to knock on every door,” Issenberg said.
Still, was there not one contrarian voter in those 59 divisions, where unofficial vote tallies have President Obama outscoring Romney by a combined 19,605 to 0?
The unanimous support for Obama in these Philadelphia neighborhoods – clustered in almost exclusively black sections of West and North Philadelphia – fertilizes fears of fraud, despite little hard evidence.
On one level, it’s not at all surprising that there was an overwhelming vote for Obama in these precincts. In 2008, Obama won all Philadelphia with 83% of the vote to John McCain’s 16.3% and it’s quite probably that he racked up 90% of the vote or more in many of the predominantly African-American areas of the city. But no votes at all? In 59 precincts? At the same time, though it’s worth noting that there are likely very few Republicans in most of these precincts to begin with:
In some of those divisions, it’s not only Romney supporters who are missing. Republicans in general are nearly extinct.
Take North Philadelphia’s 28th Ward, third division, bounded by York, 24th, and 28th Streets and Susquehanna Avenue.
About 94 percent of the 633 people who live in that division are black. Seven white residents were counted in the 2010 census.
In the entire 28th Ward, Romney received only 34 votes to Obama’s 5,920.
Although voter registration lists, which often contain outdated information, show 12 Republicans live in the ward’s third division, The Inquirer was unable to find any of them by calling or visiting their homes.
Four of the registered Republicans no longer lived there; four others didn’t answer their doors. City Board of Elections registration data say a registered Republican used to live at 25th and York Streets, but none of the neighbors across the street Friday knew him. Cathy Santos, 56, founder of the National Alliance of Women Veterans, had one theory: “We ran him out of town!” she said and laughed.
James Norris, 19, who lives down the street, is listed as a Republican in city data. But he said he’s a Democrat and voted for Obama because he thinks the president will help the middle class.
A few blocks away, Eric Sapp, a 42-year-old chef, looked skeptical when told that city data had him listed as a registered Republican. “I got to check on that,” said Sapp, who voted for Obama.
Eighteen Republicans reportedly live in the nearby 15th Division, according to city registration records. The 15th has the distinction of pitching two straight Republican shutouts – zero votes for McCain in 2008, zero for Romney on Tuesday. Oh, and 13 other city divisions did the same thing in 2008 and 2012.
In that kind of environment, is it really all that surprising that Romney got no votes in these districts? I would suggest not.
This story has been touted for days by wingnuts as more evidence of voter fraud without any evidence of voter fraud.
No one pressed the wrong button?
“This story has been touted for days by wingnuts as more evidence of voter fraud …”
… none of whom would choose to live in one of those precincts — not even if you paid ’em to do so.
Isn’t there video in at least one of these places? You could count how many ballots were cast vs how many people walked through the door. This stinks to high heaven.
Well, one of those precincts was where they threw the Republican observers out at the beginning of balloting and it took a court order to end that. So what were they afraid the Republicans might see at that precinct?
The odd thing is not one person in those 59 precincts voted for the white guy. No fear of being perceived as racists there, I guess.
These are exactly the areas – and exactly the people – the GOP has spent months demonizing, insulting, and marginalizing. These are the people whose votes the GOP tried to take away. They’re poor – not stupid, not criminals, not misguided – just poor. And they are plenty smart enough to see that no Republican politician, least of all Mitt Romney, wants to do anything except make their lives worse. Mainly by blaming all of society’s problems on them.
No; this isn’t surprising at all.
The GOP can go one of two ways with this information. Try to figure out why their message doesn’t seem to appeal to minorities, or go for the
voter fraudbirther conspiracies again.There were 185,994 voting precincts in 2004.
(the last census data I have, pdf)
It’s math again, folks. Given distribution of votes, the preferences in Philadelphia, and a little random chance, 59 doesn’t seem extreme. There are probably some opposite. Maybe an aging community in a farm belt went 100% Romney. Or say, in Utah.
@Anderson:
It’s not just the wingnuts who couldn’t be paid enough to live in those areas. The one area described in the article is part of a nicely named, but really awful, part of Philly (Strawberry Mansion). I live less than 2 miles from the city line, but I couldn’t be paid to live there, either.
@David M: it’s the GOP, there is onluy one way they can go.
. I live less than 2 miles from the city line, but I couldn’t be paid to live there, either.
Oh, I believe you — it’s just that you and I aren’t crying FRAUD!! because no Romney votes were recorded.
If one’s waxing astonished as a Republican that no Republican votes were cast, the first question should be, “would any Republicans live there if they could help it?”
@JKB:
Well, one of those precincts was where they threw the Republican observers out at the beginning of balloting and it took a court order to end that. So what were they afraid the Republicans might see at that precinct?
Black people voting. They must have heard it drives Republicans insane, and didn’t want to be responsible for that.
How long before New Black Panther Party stories start circulating again?
I’m actually surprised it’s not more than 59 precincts. I’m also surprised that none of them apparently managed more than 100% turnout. Although at another level I guess that’s not too surprising, because even liberals on the Internet would have been able to connect those dots.
In any event, what’s funny about these sort of stats — in a tragicomedy sense — is that the liberal academe-media-Internet cocoon is so naive, so inexperienced, so loopy, hell, so f’n dumb, they won’t be able to appreciate the real giant flaming screaming neon elephant in the room.
Politics by pure racial identity is so pervasive in a city like Philadelphia a demographic suffering from rank poverty, crime, horrible schools, high dropouts, massive unemployment, and gruesome blight, nevertheless voted in complete lock step to retain current conditions for themselves. But the left will gloat, preen and beat their chests about that, as if it’s a badge of honor for themselves. That the left largely consists of rich, lily-white liberals, residing in the likes of Manhattan, Greenwich, Pacific Heights and Beverly Hills, only adds to the ghastly irony of it all.
The U.S. in essence has become the mirror image of what South Africa used to be. Not exactly a shining moment. Except for and among white U.S. liberals.
@Tsar Nicholas:
If you looked at the actual exit poll results, you would see that the GOP is the party of people making over $50k, so you should probably rethink your entire rant there.
@Todd:
That’s kind of what I was thinking. But maybe there would have been even more precincts with zero Romney votes if not for a few mistakes here and there.
But yeah, this is pretty amusing watching commenters presume there’s voter fraud when there isn’t actually any evidence of it here (at least not yet).
@Tsar Nicholas: Darn – that’s one incredibly good comment.
“Darn – that’s one incredibly good comment.”
Where? Did I miss something?
@Tsar Nicholas:
No, the irony is that you can paint liberals with that big a brush in an article specifically discussing the voting of poor, dark-skinned folks in the forgotten ghettos of Philly.
Oh wait, that’s not irony – it’s abject stupidity and deliberate ignorance. Must be a Tsar Nick post.
I was only able to find county-by-county levels, but there were a handful of counties in UT, OK, and ID that went 90-95% Romney. I would not be the least bit shocked if some of those precincts were 100% Romney. I haven’t even looked at the south or WVA, yet.
Racism and fraud – the two hallmarks of the Obama presidency.
Is it possible to get a precinct by precinct breakdown of the voting in Utah?
@bandit:
Absurdist stupidity and brevity – the two hallmarks of a bandit post.
Projection and denial–the two hallmarks of the GOP and conservatives…
No evidence of Voter Fraud???????? Are you kidding? I have been a police officer for 21 years 17 years as a detective even the most liberal voting areas will have Republican signs in yards in those districts. One of the Carolinas (North I believe) had an early voting problem a single Romney Vote was registering 2 and sometimes 3 Obama votes on various new networks. North Carolina is a Swing state just like Pennsylvania and early voter results not polls were in favor of Romney usually early voting favors Democrats for a number of reasons. My state carried Obama in 2008 not in 2012. I have arrested drunks on election day I do not believe someone in 59 districts one drunk did not pull the wrong lever what do I know I have only arrested a couple thousand people in my 20 plus years. I have also noticed people having to show ID to buy drinks, get on planes, but the media (they never lie) goes nuts if you have to show ID at the voting booth. This kind of stuff went on in Eastern Europe the last 30 plus years ask someone from those countries they will tell you. Oh yeah if you think I am a typical right winger my family has been involved with Democrat Politics for over 70 years. To quote one of my political friends this is not your Grandparents Democrat Party they fought tyranny they did not elect it.
@Don Breeden:
I’m not familiar with the Democrat Party, although there is a Democratic Party.
Exactly right…there aren’t many Democrats who refer to their party as the “Democrat” Party so that is a tell right there…meanwhile, all this talk about corruption and stolen elections and all the rest are just the cries of sore losers…get over it, Romney lost…
Do the majority of Republicans know refer to the Democratic Party as the Democrat Party? And do they realize that a) it is an automatic tell that you will not be making intelligent points, but rather spouting off GOP message machine pablum; and b) they are wrong?
I understand that many Republicans are having trouble with facts versus mythology lately, but this one should be easy to understand. All they have to do is think back to high school social studies. I’m pretty sure that their teachers didn’t teach them about the Democrat Party.
Of course there is no evidence of voter fraud. Ask any geek how it’s done, and they’ll tell you in a minute. Of course there was voter fraud this whole election. Come on people. Really! Chicago Style!
@Don Breeden:
Wow. I’d hate to be DWB in your neighborhood.
Holy crap, the Idiot Racist Wingnut Cracker Conspiracy Brigade is out in force on this one. Tsar and JKB must be ecstatic that they finally found some OTB friends.
@David M: The democrat party is controlled by extremely rich Hollywood types, George Soros (who has destroyed entire countries with his moguling), the exit polls only tell us which fools fall for the “let us take care of you, because you’re too stupid to take care of yourself” voters.
@legion:
What Tsar Nicholas means by “the left largely consisting of lily-white…” is that the ultra-rich, lily-white liberals have relentlessly funded and promoted the left (especially in the media) for the past 50 years. They have censored the Republican message the same way Obama and Biden talked over Romney and Ryan during the debates. Certainly, the blacks vote democrat. They haven’t heard the Republican message, only the liberal media’s consistent distortion of it.
It was the Republicans who freed the slaves; it was the Republicans who passed the Civil Rights laws. The democrats were the clanners, but–through their pervasive lies– they have successfully bamboozled the blacks into voting for those who will keep them in poverty.
@varangian: It’s very easy to see the difference between Conservatives and Liberals. Wonder what they think of our common sense, logic and excellent communication skills vs their misguided attacks? Nice Post!
All Blacks (heck– all folks) should read Up from Slavery by the great Booker T. Washington. In it, Booker T. urges his fellow Blacks NOT to simply vote the OPPOSITE of what their white neighbors are voting.
Booker T. Washington wisely urges Blacks to study the issues carefully and vote WITH Whites for the good of all people.
That’s what well-educated, intelligent, successful Blacks do. Many of them are in the Republican party. (For example, Alan Keyes, Thomas Sowell, Alan West, etc)
Here in Chicago, I took a Republican ballot in the primary, and was contacted several times by the board of elections to serve as a Republican election judge for either my precinct or another in the area, they were so desparate to find people. I’m white, but live in a 98% black neighborhood, and these results are just not very surprising. There just aren’t a lot of Republican supporters in these areas, and the precincts are so small that it’s easy to believe that there were no votes in a number of these.
Though Romney certainly did better than Lincoln, who not only didn’t receive any votes in a number of precincts, didn’t even get a single vote in ten states.
@varangian: Dude, they voted with about 40% of whites. There is only one party that is dominated by a single racial group, and it is not the Democratic Party.
@varangian: Is there a regular class that cranks out uneducated bigoted slobs like you? It seems like a fresh crop shows up on a regular basis, making the exact same debunked arguments every single time.
Just to pop the most glaringly wrong bubble in your soap dish, when Civil Rights became a big deal in the 50s and 60s, and the national-level Democratic party (especially LBJ) started giving it support, the racists of the Deep south left the Democratic Party in droves and became Republicans. That’s why Nixon was able to win big there with his “Southern Strategy” – catering to dumb redneck racists like yourself.
@Tsar Nicholas: There is a petition to the White House asking that the election be redone, since, according to the petition, one precinct in Ohio recorded 108% of the registered voters for Obama. I put the link into this post, but it doesn’t show up on the preview. Just type: http://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/recount-election/ZQmy0MIv
@varangian:
This thread certainly brought out the crazy, although I’m a little curious / scared of what the GOP agenda would look like without the media trying to make it look respectable.
And secondly, when is the GOP going to 1) realize how offensive the second part of the quoted text is and 2) realize that Alan Keyes and Alan West only belong on a list of people named Alan that no one should listen to.
@lankyloo: What he said. Longer lankyloo: Minorities are called minorities because they’re not in the majority. If the GOP really was supported by all the white folks, with no minority votes at all, the EV tally would have been unanimous in their favor.
@varangian:
That’s just evidence there are at least 40 or 50 thousands morons out there. First, if there was fraud, I’m pretty sure the Ohio GOP would be interested. Secondly, turnout in that county was normal, the 108% number was just made up by people who can’t count.
The official election results for Wood County show just how dumb this “108%” conspiracy is.
There are 108014 registered voters, 62069 people voted, 31596 for Obama and 28997 for Romney. So the fact an Ohio county had normal turnout and Obama won it 51-47 is some kind of voter fraud? Stupid beyond words.
@legion:
Typical democrat: you adorn your lies with insults.
The facts are:The Civil Rights bill of 1964 came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964 and the “Southern Bloc” of EIGHTEEN southern Democratic Senators and ONE Republican Senator led by Richard Russell (D-GA) launched a filibuster to prevent its passage. Said Democrat Sen. Russell: “We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states.”
The most fervent opposition to the bill came from Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC): “This so-called Civil Rights Proposals, which the President has sent to Capitol Hill for enactment into law, are unconstitutional, unnecessary, unwise and extend beyond the realm of reason. This is the worst civil-rights package ever presented to the Congress and is reminiscent of the Reconstruction proposals and actions of the radical Republican Congress.” (“Reconstruction” means “after the Civil War.”) Democrat Senator Robert Byrd was a member of the KKK, advancing to the level of “Grand Kleegle.” He never lost an election! Check it out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd
@varangian:
Shorter varangian: Blacks are too stupid to know what’s good for them.
@David M: Wow! Can’t you read? I clicked on the link you provided, and the first words on the page were UNOFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS.
Yet, you posted them as “Official Election Results.”
And you have the nerve to call me “stupid beyond words.”
And the left is shocked, shocked, that we think they might be dishonest.
@varangian:
I hate to break your bubble, but the divide on the Civil Rights bill wasn’t between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, it was between Senators from the Southern States and everyone else.
Northern Democrats were more likely to support the civil rights act than Northern Republicans.
Southern Democrats were more likely to support the civil rights act than Southern Republicans.
Did the GOP help pass the bill? Yes. Did Democrats help pass the bill? Yes. Did Southern legislators oppose the bill? Yes.
@mantis: I never said what you accused me of. What you posted was yet another lie from the left.
Blacks (and the country) have been fed a constant stream of lies for so long, and the black areas in particular have been plagued with poor schools, it is no wonder they have difficulty delving through the lies to discern the truth (about economics, Timothy Geithner, fast n furious, etc).
@varangian: Do you stop reading books half-way through when it looks like the bad guys are winning? It was the fact that the Civil Rights Act was passed over a filibuster, with the support of a Democratic President and non-southern Democrats, that drove the bigots out of the Democratic Party. Here’s an interesting thing we around here like to call a “fact“:
You will note here that it was not “Democrats” in particular who fought against the CRA, it was “Southerners” of both parties. Try peddling your BS in grade school; you might have more luck there.
@David M: You’re very adept at twisting history, but the facts are, the majority of senators who opposed the Civil Rights bill were southern DEMOCRATS.
Only a DEMOCRAT senator was a KLU KLUX KLANNER!
@legion: MEMORIZE THIS FACT: 100% of the filibustering Senators were DEMOCRATS.
They spoke for unbelievably LONG, consecutive hours to keep this bill from coming to a vote.
@varangian: So, according to you the uneducated poor and highly educated elite vote Democratic, which means that it requires a truly mediocre intellect to vote Republican. I’m not so sure you really want to say that….
@varangian:
No one denies there were racist Democrats that opposed the Civil Rights Act. All we are saying is that if you are going to evaluate the parties then you need to look at the vote totals, not the actions of individual legislators.
@varangian: Wow – I thought I was being snarky when I asked if you really don’t read all the way through whole sentences. Have you read any words in this thread at all? Let me reiterate:
The majority of the worst racists in the Democratic Party left to become Republicans after the Civil Rights Act was passed over their filibuster.
I’ve said this several times. You have yet to say anything that contradicts this. Or do you think that every single person who was a Democratic Senator in 1963 is still alive, a Democrat, and serving in Congress today?
@varangian:
Again, your reading comprehension fails you. Go look at the vote totals – David referenced them and I pasted them directly into the thread. Go on, I’ll wait here…
Back? OK, great. Catch your breath – I know that was a workout for you. Did you notice something? About the breakdowns? Southern Democrats voted overwhelmingly against the CRA, yes. But Southern Republicans voted unanimously against it. And if you look at the Northern state tallies? You might just see that Democrats supported the CRA in a greater percentage than Republicans in both the House and the Senate.
In other words, reality has once again betrayed you.
@legion: I don’t know, Varangian is starting to make sense to me. He’s made me realize that union democrats are also deluded, because they would actually be better off voting for the Whigs and high tariffs, unlike those free trade Democrat-Republicans. How stupid can they be to not realize the obvious!!!!
@lankyloo: Any man who dares place a tariff on my wig will taste my steel, sir! The powder is expensive enough on its own these days.
@legion: Spoken like a true antebellum Democrat!
@varangian:
I never said what you accused me of.
I paraphrased and shortened, as I noted, but your protestations are rather weak considering you doubled down and said the same thing in your response. Sure, you blame schools, but your basic message is that blacks are too stupid to know what is good for them. Not a good way to attract people to your way of thinking.
@varangian:
It was the Republicans who freed the slaves; it was the Republicans who passed the Civil Rights laws.
Times change. The Republicans flipped it and went with Lee Atwater’s Southern Strategy while the Democrats welcomed black folk. Been that way ever since.
You can pretend we are still living 50 years ago if you like, but no one else is going to, least of all the black Americans you constantly insult.
@JKB: @David M: hackers have broken into CIA, FBI and US Army servers, so hacking into local voter database servers would be a joke simple.d
I have no question that the dems would
high school hackers can break into CIA, FBI and USArmy servers, imagine the ease to hack voter data center servers? This has Axlerod written all over it.
Sadly, Even if it is determined with 100% certainty that x million votes were either altered, deleted, erased, or otherwise subtracted from from the Romney total, it would not undo the outcome. If the evil does were discovered, and admitted the dirty deeds, the outcome would be unchanged. If tried and convicts hackers would get probabtion, maybe a fine, and a free vacation paid by some Dem.
Birth certificate: Even if B. Hussein was found to not have been born in the US, his mother was a citizen, which makes he is one too. Therefore, there is another reason the puppet president will not reveal the real birth certificate. The reason is either something like his father is not who is listed on the bogus certificate, or more likely, the mother is someone else, and not a US citizen, or he was someone elses child, and never adopted by by a US citizen mother. THAT would render him ineligible to be President, and nullify his election. But that would mean that Joe Biden would become President. A freightening thought until you think about it. It would take that mental midget four years before he realized what had happened.
@ace: “voter data center servers”? Do you even know what those words mean? There are something over 180,000 distinct voting precincts in the US. Many are not fully computerized; they still do things by paper ballots, some even with hand-counting. Even if some mystical ninja hackers were able to compromise tens of thousands of precincts, all on election night, in exactly the right areas to make a given result come true, the staffers at those precincts might just notice that their own results were altered. I don’t know how many staff members work at an average voting precinct, but if it’s even just a handful, you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people who would _all_ have to be in on the stunt to get it to work. And not a single one would be able to talk about it. Ever.
Try logic sometime. It’s a much better drug than conspiracies.
@legion:
It’s amusing the “Democrats are the real racists” crowd never think through their filibuster claims. There were large Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, and the President was also a Democrat, but the Southern Senators still needed to filibuster. If the Democratic Party opposed the Civil Rights Act, they just needed to vote against it, or have Johnson veto it. The filibuster is evidence those Southern Senators realized the a majority of the Democratic (and Republican) Parties supported the bill and the filibuster was the only way to stop it.
The majority party in the Senate doesn’t have to filibuster a bill if their party opposes it.
wow, must be that good philly public education system turning out the brightest!
@An Interested Party: it is just sort of ironic that democrats are saying get over it when a lot of them are still complaining about the 2000 election.
@steven: Did you read the Supreme Court decision? When you get a bunch of Supreme Court justices writing an opinion and then stating in that very same opinion that it shouldn’t be taken as law for any future decisions, you know you have something that stinks.
Sandra O’Connor said many years later that her vote for the majority was probably the worst legal decision she had made in her life.