Indablog

This week’s turnout set a new record. A wave of Ron Paul supporters showed up only minutes after the poll opened, well before I had released any announcements. There was another surge of voting after I posted a “polls are open” diary on on RedState. RedState’s owners would probably be very reluctant to admit it, but their site refers more supporters for Ron Paul than for anyone else.

The Republican poll also saw a relatively healthy turnout for Mike Huckabee. His 44 votes may seem small in light of the Ron Paul swarm, but it was by far the strongest showing for a Republican other than Paul since the Tuesday Tracker series began. Only John Edwards has done better on the Democratic side.

Democratic turnout was boosted by activity surrounding the debate held in Philadelphia that evening. Early balloting had Chris Dodd in front, but Edwards advanced steadily throughout the day, taking the lead and then improving his margin. A few referrals from a pro-Edwards website pushed him just past the 50% margin in the first round of voting, precluding the need for a runoff on the Democratic side. Barack Obama kept advancing as well, finally squeezing by Dodd in the plurality vote, but not depth, replicating last week’s finish.

This was the first time without a runoff on the Democratic side. So, the bottom line is that, on ChoiceRanker’s biggest day ever, there was no opportunity to showcase the virtues of its instant runoff display technology.

The results in the tables below have been reorganized to provide a more sensible indication of relative depth. The tables now include candidates who received no 1st place votes.

Once again, Tom Tancredo was the most popular 2nd choice for Paul voters, followed by Alan Keyes. Duncan Hunter was the most popular 2nd choice for Huckabee voters.

DEM poll details are here

GOP poll details are here

Filed under: Indaba Polls