Published: October 13, 2008 09:52 pm            

Who's the next president? NPR says to ask Vigo County voters

County has voted for winner in 27 of past 29 White House races

TERRE HAUTE — Vigo County’s voting record since 1892 in presidential elections is remarkable, a fact highlighted in a Monday report from National Public Radio.

The article also has been posted on the Web at www.npr.org.

Vigo County has picked the winner in every presidential election since 1892, with just two exceptions — 1908 and 1952. And since 1960, Vigo County voters have been within 3 percent of the national presidential vote.

“I don’t presume that Vigo County is predictive, but I thought it would be interesting to go to a place that has mirrored the nation so closely in the past, to see what people are thinking now. I am not pretending that it will continue, because there is no way to know. Places change, the country changes, so anything can happen in this election,” said Howard Berkes, rural affairs correspondent for NPR, who spent last week in Terre Haute.

Vigo County is among a few true bellwether counties remaining, Berkes said.

“There used to be a lot more of them, but there are only six bellwether counties if you define bellwether as voting the same way as the nation voted for president since 1960. Two counties fell off the list after the 2000 and 2004 elections. There is only one bellwether state, which is Missouri. There used to be two, Delaware was one until 2000 and 2004,” he said.

The article points out that voting patterns can be unpredictable, referring to racism as one factor.

Terre Haute attorney Fred Bauer states that Indiana and Vigo County had a history with the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that was a political force in the 1920s. “Even though we don’t have a Klan going now, and we aren’t visibly bigoted, I think there is a lot of underlying sentiment that’s anti-black,” Bauer said.

A. Theressa Bynum, president of the Terre Haute Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she thinks race “will be part of the mix this election for some.”

“I think some people will vote for either candidate because of race, but there are others who vote because of the issues,” she said.

Bynum referred to two times when Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama visited Terre Haute. At each visit, (the first in April at Terre Haute North Vigo High School before 2,700 people), the majority of those in attendance were white.

“Just from my observation in recent weeks from people in Vigo County, people support him because of the message [Obama] has. Just from people who turned out at rallies and from people who have engaged me in conversation, people I don’t even know, whether at the post office or in the grocery store, I don’t see race as a factor,” Bynum said.

Berkes said racism came up as a possible but not overriding factor among people he spoke to in Terre Haute.

“I think it is the big unknown about this election, whether Barack Obama’s race will provide enough of a vote against him that could cost him the election. Right now the polls indicate it is close, both nationally and from the hunch people had in Vigo County” about the November presidential election.

“The election will be decided by swing voters,” Berkes said.

        

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