Unrelated from the recent discussions, but does anyone have a reason why Jefferson County (SE Texas - Beaumont) is still a battleground county? Demographic-wise, it seems it should favor Republicans, although not overwhelmingly so. Could it be an anomaly left over from the heavily Democratic South days?
IIRC it has a very significant black population and a large university.
I understand what you and Flo are saying, although Waller County, just NW of Harris, is home to the historically black Prairie View A&M, and has roughly similar demographics to Jefferson (if not more D leaning), yet voted ~58-41 for Romney vs. 50.3-48.7 for Obama in Jefferson County.
There is a longstanding controversy between Waller County and Prairie View regarding the university students' voting rights. The District Attorney has sued to prevent students from voting at their school address; election officials "accidentally" misplaced about a thousand students' registration cards, just in time to keep them from voting in that year's general; polling locations are as far out of the way as possible; student candidates for local offices routinely get ignored in the voter guides, etc
