Amy and thread,
The high-tech vote in the 2000 election:
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Update: The tech vote
November 11, 2000 03:53 PM PT
by Ryan Tate
Curious as to how technology leaders, entrepreneurs, engineers and the rank-and-file are voting in this year's presidential election, we'll keep an eye on silicon-drenched counties throughout the nation. This is by no means a scientific sample of tech sentiment, but should give some insight into what, if any, differences there are between the tech community and the rest of the country -- or if there is such a community in the first place.
All results are final, with all precincts reporting, unless otherwise stated.
Nationwide **Not final** updated 8:35 a.m. PT
Bush: 48,999,459 (48.34%)
Gore: 49,222,339 (48.56%)
Nader: 2,694,855 (2.66%)
Buchanan: 442,637 (0.44%)
(99% of precincts)
Silicon Valley
Spread over tech-heavy Santa Clara County and the more mixed San Mateo, the Valley is famous for hatching an astounding number of tech titans -- big-name companies like Sun Microsystems (SUNW), Oracle (ORCL), Cisco (CSCO), Intel (INTC) and Apple (AAPL). San Mateo County, which lies to the south of San Francisco, encompasses Menlo Park, where venture capitalists line Sand Hill Road; Woodside, where top CEOs live; and Redwood City, a startup hub.
It is Santa Clara County that is dotcom central. Old Netscape hands will remember Mountain View from the browser's old startup screen. Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and Cupertino house chip companies and dotcom startups.
Santa Clara County, Calif.
Bush: 165,629 (34%)
Gore: 295,243 (61%)
Nader: 16,715 (3.5%)
(100% of precincts reporting)
San Mateo County, Calif.
Bush: 69,108 (31%)
Gore: 144,883 (65%)
Nader: 9,000 (4%)
(100% of precincts reporting)
Seattle
Led by Redmond, Wash.'s Microsoft (MSFT), the Seattle area is home to many technology firms, including a healthy number of dotcoms. Venture capitalists love pouring cash into the region because of the ready supply of Microsoft-trained managers and engineers.
King County, though, encompasses both Redmond and Seattle, a large and diverse metropolis where the economy is also fueled by aerospace (Boeing (BA) is based in Seattle).
King County, Wash.
Bush: 178,976 (34%)
Gore: 319,362 (61%)
Nader: 24,304 (5%)
(99% of precincts reporting)
Austin, Texas
Home to a bevy of tech firms -- from Dell (DELL) to Vignette (VIGN) -- Austin has managed to avoid some of the inflationary pressures of the tech stock run-up. Techies.com, an IT portal, ranked the city as one of the three most affordable high-tech cities in the U.S. (along with Dallas and Houston), with low home prices and living costs. That helps explain why non-Texan firms like Cisco, Nortel (NT) and Motorola (MOT) are setting up shop there.
Dell is in Williamson County's Round Rock, while Vignette is in Travis County. Williamson is more upscale, while Austin houses a large student population. Both have broad-based economies, although Williamson's is more tech-heavy.
Travis County, Texas
Bush: 141,142 (47%)
Gore: 125,422 (42%)
Nader: 31,219 (10%)
(99% of precincts reporting)
Williamson County, Texas
Bush: 65,031 (68%)
Gore: 26,591 (28%)
Nader: 3,486 (3%)
(99% of precincts reporting)
North Carolina's Research Triangle Park
Scrappy startups like the BuildNet, NetOctave, SciQuest (SQST) and Siebel-acquired (SEBL) OpenSite Technologies call the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area their home, along with larger-cap firms like Red Hat (RHAT). Semiconductor firms and other brainy concerns compete for talent graduating out of area universities, like Duke.
Tech talent is concentrated in Wake, Orange and Durham counties.
Durham County, N.C.
Bush: 29,799 (36%)
Gore: 53,150 (63%)
Nader: N/A
(100% of precincts reporting)
Orange County, N.C.
Bush: 17,875 (36%)
Gore: 30,802 (62%)
Nader: N/A
(100% of precincts reporting)
Wake County, N.C.
Bush: 137,935 (53%)
Gore: 117,907 (46%)
Nader: N/A
(100% of precincts reporting)
Silicon Alley
New York County in New York is home to all of Manhattan -- hardly a tech-dominated area. Nevertheless, the city has become more and more directly entwined with technology in recent years. Internet ad giant DoubleClick (DCLK) and media plays like 24/7 Media (TFSM) and NetCreations (NTCR) are based there. Don't forget content plays like TheStreet.com (TSCM) and ISP Juno (JWEB).
And of course, there is Time Warner (TWX), soon to be swallowed by America Online (AOL).
Silicon Alley has been rankled in recent weeks by the downturn in dotcom advertising and several firms have had to close their doors.
New York County
Bush: 77,614 (15%)
Gore: 409,257 (79%)
Nader: 28,102 (5%)
(99% of precincts reporting)
Boston area's Route 128 corridor
The Boston area is packed with students and their universities, including the most prestigious of all science and engineering schools, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brainy new firms like Forrester Research (FORR) and ArsDigita have recently joined a regional tech pantheon that includes extinct titan Digital (now owned by Compaq (CPQ)).
Other recent startups in the region: Andover.net, Sycamore Networks (SCMR) and Avici Systems (AVCI). Lycos, now Terra Networks (TRLY), was founded in Waltham, Mass.
But Massachusettes counties don't count ballots, instead leaving the tallies to the hundreds of individual towns and cities in the state. Those official results could take days to reach state election officials, but the home state of the Kennedy famiy went to Gore.
Boston
Bush: 35,931 (20%)
Gore: 129,861 (72%)
Nader: 13,301 (7%)
(100% of precincts reporting)
upside.com
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Ibexx |
