2004 United States presidential election in Utah

2004 United States presidential election in Utah

← 2000 November 2, 2004 2008 →

Nominee George W. Bush John Kerry Party Republican Democratic Home state Texas Massachusetts Running mate Dick Cheney John Edwards Electoral vote 5 0 Popular vote 663,742 241,199 Percentage 71.54% 26.00%

County Results Bush   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90%

President before election George W. Bush Republican Elected President George W. Bush Republican

Elections in Utah
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The 2004 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 2, 2004. It was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose five representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Utah was won by incumbent President George W. Bush by a 45.5% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 12 news organizations considered this a state Bush would win, or otherwise considered as a safe red state. It is a strongly Republican state that in 2004 had a state legislature with a "super-majority" of Republicans in its make-up (meaning the minority parties are unable to block a veto by its members), both U.S. Senators being Republican as well as two of the three members of the U.S. House of Representatives. With 71.54 percent of the popular vote, Utah was Bush's strongest state in the 2004 election.^[1]

This was the first of four instances in which a presidential candidate gained over 70% of a state's vote after Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide. The others are Mitt Romney in Utah in 2012 and Barack Obama in Hawaii in 2008 and 2012. These last three all involved a candidate with a close tie to the state: Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, and Mitt Romney, as the first Mormon on a major-party presidential ticket, was popular in Mormon-majority Utah and would later represent the state in the United States Senate.

Primaries[]

• 2004 Utah Democratic presidential primary

Campaign[]

Predictions[]

There were 12 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.^[2]

1. D.C. Political Report: Solid Republican
2. Associated Press: Solid Bush
3. CNN: Bush
4. Cook Political Report: Lean Republican
5. Newsweek: Solid Bush
6. New York Times: Solid Bush
7. Rasmussen Reports: Bush
8. Research 2000: Solid Bush
9. Washington Post: Bush
10. Washington Times: Solid Bush
11. Zogby International: Bush
12. Washington Dispatch: Bush

Polling[]

The final three polls averaged Bush with 67 percent to Kerry with 25 percent.^[3]

Fundraising[]

Bush raised $561,645.^[4] Kerry raised $262,031.^[5]

Advertising and visits[]

Neither campaign advertised or visited this state during the fall election.^[6][7]

Analysis[]

Republicans dominate Utah state politics because of the very high Mormon population that accounts for almost seventy percent of the residents throughout the state. Mormons have been known for having very conservative values. While every county voted for Bush, areas such as Summit County (ski resort), Moab (becoming an outpost for environmental activists), Carbon County (largely blue collar), Salt Lake City (urban area with some diversity) and San Juan County (economically distressed and mostly Native American) did give a number of their votes to Kerry. However, other areas were uniformly Republican in voting. Utah County's (home of Provo and Brigham Young University) Republican vote (86%) was by far the largest percentage of any county its size in America.

Results[]

2004 United States presidential election in Utah[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	George W. Bush (incumbent)	663,742	71.54%	5
	Democratic	John Kerry	241,199	26.00%	0
	Unaffiliated	Ralph Nader	11,305	1.22%	0
	Constitution Party	Michael Peroutka	6,841	0.74%	0
	Libertarian Party	Michael Badnarik	3,375	0.36%	0
	Personal Choice Party	Charles Jay	946	0.10%	0
	Socialist Workers Party	Roger Calero	393	0.04%	0
	Green Party	David Cobb	39	0.00%	0
	Write Ins		4	0.00%	0
Totals			927,844	100.00%	5
Voter turnout (Voting age population)					57.7%

Results by county[]

County	George Walker Bush Republican		John Forbes Kerry Democratic		Ralph Nader[9] Unaffiliated		Michael A. Peroutka[9] Constitution		Various candidates[9] Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Beaver	2,023	79.52%	493	19.38%	12	0.47%	9	0.35%	7	0.28%	1,530	60.14%	2,544
Box Elder	15,751	85.75%	2,244	12.22%	145	0.79%	144	0.78%	84	0.46%	13,507	73.54%	18,368
Cache	32,486	81.76%	6,375	16.05%	413	1.04%	274	0.69%	183	0.46%	26,111	65.72%	39,731
Carbon	4,950	58.18%	3,415	40.14%	83	0.98%	22	0.26%	38	0.45%	1,535	18.04%	8,508
Daggett	380	76.31%	108	21.69%	6	1.20%	3	0.60%	1	0.20%	272	54.62%	498
Davis	86,187	78.88%	20,893	19.12%	1,055	0.97%	695	0.64%	432	0.40%	65,294	59.76%	109,262
Duchesne	4,742	85.38%	738	13.29%	27	0.49%	32	0.58%	15	0.27%	4,004	72.09%	5,554
Emery	3,781	80.83%	831	17.76%	23	0.49%	29	0.62%	14	0.30%	2,950	63.06%	4,678
Garfield	1,848	85.48%	264	12.21%	22	1.02%	16	0.74%	12	0.56%	1,584	73.27%	2,162
Grand	2,130	51.15%	1,858	44.62%	118	2.83%	20	0.48%	38	0.91%	272	6.53%	4,164
Iron	12,815	82.97%	2,267	14.68%	111	0.72%	169	1.09%	83	0.54%	10,548	68.29%	15,445
Juab	2,681	78.46%	605	17.71%	20	0.59%	98	2.87%	13	0.38%	2,076	60.76%	3,417
Kane	2,414	79.15%	576	18.89%	25	0.82%	19	0.62%	16	0.52%	1,838	60.26%	3,050
Millard	4,084	83.76%	626	12.84%	28	0.57%	118	2.42%	20	0.41%	3,458	70.92%	4,876
Morgan	3,301	85.96%	472	12.29%	25	0.65%	24	0.63%	18	0.47%	2,829	73.67%	3,840
Piute	646	83.57%	123	15.91%	3	0.39%	1	0.13%	0	0.00%	523	67.66%	773
Rich	922	88.91%	109	10.51%	5	0.48%	1	0.10%	0	0.00%	813	78.40%	1,037
Salt Lake	215,728	59.57%	135,949	37.54%	6,025	1.66%	2,199	0.61%	2,235	0.62%	79,779	22.03%	362,136
San Juan	2,971	60.07%	1,906	38.54%	30	0.61%	24	0.49%	15	0.30%	1,065	21.53%	4,946
Sanpete	7,004	82.33%	1,189	13.98%	58	0.68%	217	2.55%	39	0.46%	5,815	68.36%	8,507
Sevier	6,597	86.34%	920	12.04%	37	0.48%	60	0.79%	27	0.35%	5,677	74.30%	7,641
Summit	7,936	51.83%	6,977	45.57%	265	1.73%	36	0.24%	98	0.64%	959	6.26%	15,312
Tooele	12,181	73.10%	4,130	24.79%	150	0.90%	111	0.67%	91	0.55%	8,051	48.32%	16,663
Uintah	8,518	85.57%	1,266	12.72%	42	0.42%	99	0.99%	30	0.30%	7,252	72.85%	9,955
Utah	128,269	85.99%	17,357	11.64%	1,289	0.86%	1,621	1.09%	637	0.43%	110,912	74.35%	149,173
Wasatch	5,503	73.26%	1,854	24.68%	60	0.80%	65	0.87%	30	0.40%	3,649	48.58%	7,512
Washington	35,633	80.95%	7,513	17.07%	301	0.68%	362	0.82%	209	0.47%	28,120	63.88%	44,018
Wayne	1,062	78.09%	279	20.51%	10	0.74%	5	0.37%	4	0.29%	783	57.57%	1,360
Weber	51,199	70.43%	19,862	27.32%	917	1.26%	368	0.51%	345	0.47%	31,337	43.11%	72,691
Totals	663,742	71.54%	241,199	26.00%	11,305	1.22%	6,841	0.74%	4,757	0.51%	422,543	45.54%	927,844

Results by congressional district[]

Bush won all three congressional districts.

District	Bush	Kerry	Representative
1st	73%	25%	Rob Bishop
2nd	66%	31%	Jim Matheson
3rd	77%	20%	Chris Cannon

Electors[]

Technically the voters of Utah cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Utah is allocated five electors because it has three congressional districts and two senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of five electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins a plurality of votes in the state is awarded all five electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 13, 2004, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 5 were pledged to Bush/Cheney:

1. Olene S. Walker
2. Gayle McKeachnie
3. Lewis K. Billings
4. Joseph A. Cannon
5. Scott F. Simpson

See also[]

• United States presidential elections in Utah
• Presidency of George W. Bush

References[]

• Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas
• Official 2004 Utah General Election Results