I had seen that Richmond County (Staten Island) had reported 49.9% Obama to 49.1% Romney, but it was with only 135,000 votes in, and I assumed that there were still absentees and such remaining to be counted (the county had cast 160,000 votes in 2004 and 166,000 in 2008). Did the hurricane really reduce turnout by 15%-20%?
Richmond County voted for Gore in 2000, Bush in 2004, McCain in 2008 and Obama in 2012. Did any other county do that?
OK, I did the research. Richmond County, NY (Staten Island) was one of only 9 counties to have voted for McCain in 2008 and for Obama in 2012:
Chaffee County, CO
Early County, GA
Woodbury County, IA
Franklin County, KY
Somerset County, MD
Warren County, MS
Richmond County, NY
Nash County, NC
Darlington County, SC
Of those 9 counties, 3 previously had voted for Gore in 2000 and Bush in 2004:
Franklin County, KY
Somerset County, MD
Richmond County, NY
Somerset County (in the southern part of MD’s Eastern Shore) was most similar to Richmond County in that it had voted for Bush in 2004 by a wide margin and narrowly for the other three; Franklin County (Frankfort) voted narrowly for the winning candidate all four times.