Opinion of Waldron Island, Washington

[Rob]

Waldron is a remote island in San Juan County. It is 95 percent white and 56 percent of the population lives below the poverty line- as of 2000, 104 people lived there. It's best known for its large rattlesnake population (they were imported to reduce the rat population), and for a 1997 marijuana raid that resulted in the arrests of seven people- almost 1 out of 10 people on the island!

From an island profile:

Tourists don't belong here. Occasionally they show up anyway, out of curiosity, but there's no reason to stay. No bicycle rentals, no phones, no ferry service, no electricity. Not even a cold drink. The only store closed in 1942...

Everybody on this 2,900-acre island knows everybody else's business -- their talents, their troubles, what makes them angry...

Self-contained, mostly self-governed, Waldron Island has one public dock and a private airstrip. There's a public school, a cemetery where four generations of islanders are buried and a post office, where mail is delivered three times a week and where neighbors are most likely to bump into one another.

The community is a flavorful mix of Ph.D.s and dropouts, Quakers and agnostics, poets and mechanics who co-exist, sometimes contentiously, but most of the time with respect for one another's differences.

recent election results:

1996: Clinton 63%, Nader 24%, Dole 9%, Others 6%
2000: Gore 64%, Nader 30%, Bush 6%
2004: Kerry 96%, Bush 4%
2008: Obama 92%, McCain 5%, Others 3%

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I like how they vote but it'd be a hellhole to me.

[Alcon]

Since 2006 Waldron has a family of three reliable conservative Republicans (I've figured out which family it is, too ) and then has recently tended to have an extra fourth Republican, who at first I thought was a Clintonista but may actually just be a new GOP voter.

Otherwise they're all liberal Democrats .

[Nym90]

Interesting that it actually swung GOP in 2008 (though I'm assuming that could've just been a few Democratic voters having died since 2004 or something).

And I know the place is uber-liberal, but how in the heck did Nader do so well in 1996 when the vast majority of Americans had no idea he was even running that year?

[Alcon]

Interesting that it actually swung GOP in 2008 (though I'm assuming that could've just been a few Democratic voters having died since 2004 or something).

And I know the place is uber-liberal, but how in the heck did Nader do so well in 1996 when the vast majority of Americans had no idea he was even running that year?

The same Republican family was joined by some other GOP voter, and a few Democrats died or moved.  No one changed their mind   (The third-party voters are solid Greens; I have no idea why they bit the bullet for Kerry in '04.  They vote third party in every single other race ever.)

He did very well because, when I say Waldron is full of liberal Democrats, I mean extremely liberal Democrats.  The Class I drug legalization initiative that didn't break 40% statewide got like 80% on Waldron.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

How did you figure out what family the Republicans are?

And 2004 is quite obvious. Anybody But Bush.

[Alcon]

How did you figure out what family the Republicans are?

2008 Presidential preference primary -- It's public information which party's ballot you cast.  Also, they don't always vote and GOP votes tend to disappear complete in primaries where they don't.

And 2004 is quite obvious. Anybody But Bush.

Yeah, no doubt -- although it's not usually that effective of a mantra.  Small sample size, though, and based on turnout rates I imagine Bush hatred was at a high.

[memphis]

Sounds like a horrible, isolated place. I need contact with the outside world.

[Хahar 🤔]

How did you figure out what family the Republicans are?

2008 Presidential preference primary -- It's public information which party's ballot you cast.  Also, they don't always vote and GOP votes tend to disappear complete in primaries where they don't.

The next question:

Why do you know this?

[Torie]

I think I might want to spend a summer in this place.

[Free Palestine]

Sounds like a nice enough place.

[Alcon]

How did you figure out what family the Republicans are?

2008 Presidential preference primary -- It's public information which party's ballot you cast.  Also, they don't always vote and GOP votes tend to disappear complete in primaries where they don't.

The next question:

Why do you know this?

When I was trying to figure out why it was so liberal,  I looked up the voter rolls to see who lived there.  Not something I've dedicated hours of my life to, although I did write the Wikipedia demography stats.

[Meeker]

The current (and first) Poet Laureate of Washington State lives on Waldron Island.

[Hash]

If it's so poor, why is it so liberal? Traditionally, liberal Democrats of this genre tend to be more affluent.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This might be another "lol, American poverty statistics" issue, though tbh such a weird area would produce weird statistics no matter how tha measure...

[minionofmidas]

What do they live on?

[DariusNJ]

Waldron is a remote island in San Juan County. It is 95 percent white and 56 percent of the population lives below the poverty line- as of 2000, 104 people lived there. It's best known for its large rattlesnake population (they were imported to reduce the rat population), and for a 1997 marijuana raid that resulted in the arrests of seven people- almost 1 out of 10 people on the island!

From an island profile:

Tourists don't belong here. Occasionally they show up anyway, out of curiosity, but there's no reason to stay. No bicycle rentals, no phones, no ferry service, no electricity. Not even a cold drink. The only store closed in 1942...

Everybody on this 2,900-acre island knows everybody else's business -- their talents, their troubles, what makes them angry...

Self-contained, mostly self-governed, Waldron Island has one public dock and a private airstrip. There's a public school, a cemetery where four generations of islanders are buried and a post office, where mail is delivered three times a week and where neighbors are most likely to bump into one another.

The community is a flavorful mix of Ph.D.s and dropouts, Quakers and agnostics, poets and mechanics who co-exist, sometimes contentiously, but most of the time with respect for one another's differences.

recent election results:

1996: Clinton 63%, Nader 24%, Dole 9%, Others 6%
2000: Gore 64%, Nader 30%, Bush 6%
2004: Kerry 96%, Bush 4%
2008: Obama 92%, McCain 5%, Others 3%

Wow, a remote island where it seems that most people smoke marijuana regularly? I might retire here!

[Linus Van Pelt]

If it's so poor, why is it so liberal? Traditionally, liberal Democrats of this genre tend to be more affluent.

I don't know this specific place, but if it's anything like the B.C. gulf islands - and everything here so far would suggest that it is - then it's full of hippies who are low-income due to having dropped out of the mainstream economy but aren't culturally working-class at all.

Such people live on all the islands in the region (on both sides of the border) but the more populated islands also have rich retirees, vacationers etc., so the demographics and voting patterns won't look so extreme.