Vermont Big For Obama

I had been wondering whether any New England state might take the prize for highest-in-the-nation percentage vote for Obama (not including DC). In 2004, we swept the medals; Massachusetts had the highest percentage for John Kerry, followed by Rhode Island and Vermont -- but that was with home-field advantage. I thought maybe Rhode Island might take the prize this time, although I suspected heavy competition from Illinois, Hawaii, and Delaware -- 2004's #6 and #9 for Kerry respectively, but now with major Obama/Biden ties.

Here are the 2008 top ten in Obama vote percentage, by my unofficial calaculations:

1) Hawaii, 72%; 2) Vermont, 67%; 3) Rhode Island, 63.1%; 4) New York, 62.33%; 5) Massachusetts, 62.27%; 6) Maryland, 62.14%; 7) Delaware, 62.10%; 8) Illinois, 61.9%; 9) Connecticut, 61.6%; 10) California, 61.1%.

So, no gold medal, but a solid showing. John McCain won a single county in New England: Piscataquis County, Maine (home of Moosehead Lake!), where he got just under 51% and topped Obama by 355 votes. The top New England county for Obama was Boston's own Suffolk County, where he got 77.5%, followed by notoriously hippy-dippy Berkshire County, Mass.; the chardonay-sipping vineyarders in Dukes Count, Mass; and then Windham County, Vermont and Franklin County, Mass.