Why did NM have more votes for Dem representatives than for Kerry?

[lizzieforkerry]

I think it is weird that more people voted democrat for the
representatives than for Kerry in NM

KE 331162
BC 333324

Dist 1
D 116105
R 140481
R 241

Dist 2
D 79061
R 118826

Dist 3
D 143913
R 61658



See? Add all the Dems together and you get 339079 vs 331162 for Kerry. I don't know much about NM, is this possible that 8000 people would split their vote? I am new and I don't know how to link-sorry. I got my numbers off the the New Mexico Secretary of State website around 2:30 Fri.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Those folks that voted straight Democratic ticket probably

had their votes for presidency taken from them and given to Bush. That is what happened in Texas. A lot of shit going on with those fucking machines!

[LisaLynne]

2. Wow ... that's an interesting point.

I wonder how many other places could find this sort of data. And also, you might want to look at the Republican numbers, too, and see if there was that much difference between those who voted for * and those who voted for other Republicans.

[lizzieforkerry]

3. When you add up the Rep for Representative votes

you get 321206 vs 333324 for Bush. you get a differnce of 12118 more people voted for Bush than the repub representative. So 4000 people didn't vote for a representative? Is that usual?

[AP]

4. Look through the vote % for Representatives in any state. It usually...

...ranges from 60 to 85%. When no party makes up more than about 40% of voters, there are clearly a ton of people who crossover vote for their representative.

Being a Rep is almost like tenure. You have a nice little gerrymandered district, so you get a slight registration advantage and you get to top that off by taking advantage of free mail to keep in touch with your voters.

I think many people split their vote between their rep and the president.