What are those three precincts in the middle of Hennepin county that voted strongly for the marriage amendment while everything else around them voted against? Some kind of immigrant community I assume?
Somalis?
Yep, hence my comment above about confirming my suspicions. I knew what precincts in Minneapolis were in favor but because of redistricting wasn't entirely sure where they are. The map is clearly in Somali areas. Interestingly the African-American areas in northwest Minneapolis seemed to lean slightly against it.
What's also kind of annoying is the Somali areas happen to sit right next to a fundamentalist Assembly of God university which traditionally has been the most Republican precinct in Minneapolis. However in recent years the areas surrounding it have managed to outvote it and it's started voting Democratic (though less than any other precinct in the city.) In this case it voted about 60/40 both for Obama and the amendment, so the footprint of NCU is hard to gauge. Now compare that to a nearby precinct that was over 91% for Obama and about 65% for the amendment.
Also, I can't exactly tell but it looks like the American Indian reservations up north voted strongly against the Amendment. That's really interesting.
That's "strongly"?
35-45% against. Eh. Granted those areas probably look lighter than they are because of the darkness of the surrounding areas, easy to mistake for the lightest shade. Mind you 38% does seem pretty high in a precinct that voted like this for President:
Republican MITT ROMNEY AND PAUL RYAN 1 0.26%
Democratic-Farmer-Labor BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN 385 99.23%
Libertarian Party GARY JOHNSON AND JIM GRAY 2 0.52%