South Haven, MN: So tolerant they're not even going to blacken an oval? Wild prez returns too

UPDATE: Alas, the fun documented below seems to have been a sort of reporting error, probably in a miscalibrated counting machine.

Wright County DFL activist Sue Rego kindly left a comment about the correction.

Both amendments passed, and Barack Obama edged out Mitt Romney by a 46-44 margin, with Libertarian Gary Johnson netting 2 votes.

In the US Senate race, Amy Klobuchar received 59 votes, Kurt Bills 27, and IP Steven Williams and Grassroots  Party Tim Davis 2 each. DFLers from Jim Graves and the legislative candidates took the town too. Fun while  it lasted. [End update]

Wright County is deepest western suburban red, and so Bluestem did a double take when we saw the extraordinarily low "yes" votes for the amendments in bucolic South Haven's (population 187) returns:

Amendment #1:

Yes 5
No 7
Estimated Blanks 63
Estimated Total Number of Voters 75
Estimated Percent of YES* 6.67%

Amendment #2

Yes 6
No 10
Estimated Blanks 59
Estimated Total Number of Voters 75
Estimated Percent of YES* 8.00%

The presidential returns from South Haven, a tiny town on Highway 55 with a couple of fun bars, are more diverse than the rest of the nation:

Party	Candidate	Totals	Pct	Graph
Republican	MITT ROMNEY AND PAUL RYAN	2	2.67%
Democratic-Farmer-Labor	BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN	7	9.33%
Libertarian Party	GARY JOHNSON AND JIM GRAY	3	4.00%
Socialist Workers Party	JAMES HARRIS AND MAURA DELUCA	6	8.00%
Constitution Party	VIRGIL GOODE AND JIM CLYMER	5	6.67%
Constitutional Government	DEAN MORSTAD AND JOSH FRANKE-HYLAND	7	9.33%
Green Party	JILL STEIN AND CHERI HONKALA	7	9.33%
Grassroots Party	JIM CARLSON AND GEORGE MCMAHON	8	10.67%
Socialism and Liberation	PETA LINDSAY AND YARI OSORIO	9	12.00%
Justice Party	ROSS C. "ROCKY" ANDERSON AND LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ	10	13.33%
Write-In	WRITE-IN**	11	14.67%

As are the U.S. Senate votes:

Party	Candidate	Totals	Pct	Graph
Independence	STEPHEN WILLIAMS	3	10.00%
Republican	KURT BILLS	2	6.67%
Democratic-Farmer-Labor	AMY KLOBUCHAR	8	26.67%
Grassroots Party	TIM DAVIS	5	16.67%
Minnesota Open Progressives	MICHAEL CAVLAN	6	20.00%
Write-In	WRITE-IN**	6	20.00%

Beyond that, there's a lot of "drop off." DFL Congressional candidate Jim Graves, for instance, received a mere nine votes, far outstripping Michele Bachmann's two supporters. Write-in candidates recieved four votes.

For the 2008 presidential election, 107 people were registerd in South Haven, which favored McCain over Obama 45-40. In 2010, 94 people were registered, and both Bachmann and Emmer won a plurality of the votes cast.

Unofficial counts, of course. Bluestem will be watching to see if the counts change after the official canvas.

Photo: Downtown South Haven.

Comments

[Charlie Quimby]

A portrait of this town has the makings of book, Sally Jo.

[Phoenix Woman]

So six people here allegedly voted for Michael Cavlan -- four more than voted for Kurt Bills, and only two less than voted for A-Klo? In a traditionally-deep-red area?

Yeah, that's totally believable. Not.

[Susan Rego]

South Haven has been updated. On the Marriage Amendment, 65 voted yes and 29 voted no. No estimated blanks.
http://tinyurl.com/alwhctk