5 ms·

In case anybody's interested in trying this, Loving County, Texas has an official population of 64, with 66 people (that's right) casting votes in the 2020 elec

In case anybody's interested in trying this, Loving County, Texas has an official population of 64, with 66 people (that's right) casting votes in the 2020 election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_County,_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_County,_Texas https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/loving.shtml https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/historical/loving.shtm...

mahogany 5y ago
But also according to your link, it has 111 registered voters, a much higher number than the official population. What am I supposed to take away from this? That the census isn't counting people correctly, or that you can be registered to vote somewhere but not live there? Edit: according to this[1] PDF, Loving County, TX had an official population of 67 in 2000, but the voting data link in the parent comment says that 156 people voted. Hmmm. [1] https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/phc-3-45.pdf https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/phc-3-45.pdf
- chromaton 5y ago
  Either the Census count is inaccurate or there's voter fraud.
  - mahogany 5y ago
    But what would be the point of committing voter fraud in a county that had 60/66 votes for Trump[1]? Seems more likely to me that the Census is incorrect or that there is something going on with multiple residences. [1] https://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/texas/ https://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/texas/
  - mcguire 5y ago
    Or some number of the residents are away at college, in the military, or otherwise have an official residence in Loving but are not living there.
  - chromaton 5y ago
    “Voter turnout is always a hundred percent, sometimes more” -- https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/not-so-loving-county/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/not-so-loving-cou...
- InitialLastName 5y ago
  More likely (given other references in the wikipedia article to "non-resident males") there is a discrepancy between who gets counted as a resident by the county and who can be registered there by the state. Additionally, Texas might or might not have a habit of purging dead or emigrant voters from their voting rolls, which would skew the number of registered voters. Lastly, yes, the census is almost certainly an undercount, including in the more (shall we say) government-counting-everybody-skeptical rural regions of the country.
- wyldfire 5y ago
  The census only happens once per ten years. Ordinarily I wouldn't expect a region to double in size but if there's only 60 at baseline it's not unreasonable to expect ~60 more in ten years.
- elliekelly 5y ago
  A Texas Monthly article[1] from 1997 is cited by the Wikipedia article and alludes to unusual voter residency rules in Texas: > Thanks to Texas’ domicile law, people who don’t live or work in the county can still vote there if they own a piece of land—and there’s plenty of land in Loving County for sale. “All you need to do is claim one of these little old deserted shacks or even a tree that you can eat your supper under as your own,” says one woman, who asked not to be named. “It’s all perfectly legal.” The whole article is worth a read. It’s wild. Especially considering it was written before social media. [1]https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/not-so-loving-county/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/not-so-loving-cou...
- jdminhbg 5y ago
  The Census Bureau fuzzes numbers for privacy reasons, which becomes more apparent the small the district is. Liberty Island (home of the Statue of Liberty but no actual people) is listed as having 48 residents for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-12/data-scientists-ask-can-we-trust-the-2020-census?sref=QFCZ3YPm https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-12/data-scie...
ramesh31 5y ago
It doesn't really work at the city level. You have to control a county. Most Americans really have no idea just how powerful a county sheriff is within their county. They are only 2 levels of command in the executive branch removed from the President.
- aidenn0 5y ago
  Or you could control a city in Virginia (Virginia is unique in that all incorporated cities are independent of the surrounding county; all but 3 of the independent cities in the US are in Virginia).

mahogany 5y ago

But also according to your link, it has 111 registered voters, a much higher number than the official population. What am I supposed to take away from this? That the census isn't counting people correctly, or that you can be registered to vote somewhere but not live there? Edit: according to this[1] PDF, Loving County, TX had an official population of 67 in 2000, but the voting data link in the parent comment says that 156 people voted. Hmmm. [1] https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/phc-3-45.pdf https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/phc-3-45.pdf

chromaton 5y ago
Either the Census count is inaccurate or there's voter fraud.
- mahogany 5y ago
  But what would be the point of committing voter fraud in a county that had 60/66 votes for Trump[1]? Seems more likely to me that the Census is incorrect or that there is something going on with multiple residences. [1] https://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/texas/ https://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/texas/
- mcguire 5y ago
  Or some number of the residents are away at college, in the military, or otherwise have an official residence in Loving but are not living there.
- chromaton 5y ago
  “Voter turnout is always a hundred percent, sometimes more” -- https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/not-so-loving-county/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/not-so-loving-cou...
InitialLastName 5y ago
More likely (given other references in the wikipedia article to "non-resident males") there is a discrepancy between who gets counted as a resident by the county and who can be registered there by the state. Additionally, Texas might or might not have a habit of purging dead or emigrant voters from their voting rolls, which would skew the number of registered voters. Lastly, yes, the census is almost certainly an undercount, including in the more (shall we say) government-counting-everybody-skeptical rural regions of the country.
wyldfire 5y ago
The census only happens once per ten years. Ordinarily I wouldn't expect a region to double in size but if there's only 60 at baseline it's not unreasonable to expect ~60 more in ten years.
elliekelly 5y ago
A Texas Monthly article[1] from 1997 is cited by the Wikipedia article and alludes to unusual voter residency rules in Texas: > Thanks to Texas’ domicile law, people who don’t live or work in the county can still vote there if they own a piece of land—and there’s plenty of land in Loving County for sale. “All you need to do is claim one of these little old deserted shacks or even a tree that you can eat your supper under as your own,” says one woman, who asked not to be named. “It’s all perfectly legal.” The whole article is worth a read. It’s wild. Especially considering it was written before social media. [1]https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/not-so-loving-county/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/not-so-loving-cou...
jdminhbg 5y ago
The Census Bureau fuzzes numbers for privacy reasons, which becomes more apparent the small the district is. Liberty Island (home of the Statue of Liberty but no actual people) is listed as having 48 residents for example: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-12/data-scientists-ask-can-we-trust-the-2020-census?sref=QFCZ3YPm https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-12/data-scie...

ramesh31 5y ago

It doesn't really work at the city level. You have to control a county. Most Americans really have no idea just how powerful a county sheriff is within their county. They are only 2 levels of command in the executive branch removed from the President.

aidenn0 5y ago
Or you could control a city in Virginia (Virginia is unique in that all incorporated cities are independent of the surrounding county; all but 3 of the independent cities in the US are in Virginia).