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Working at the High Point Enterprise until 2004, I kept a chart of election returns in that city.

What jumped out was High Point's consistent loyalty to Republican presidential candidates.

Not since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944 had a Democrat carried High Point in presidential voting.

That can't be said anymore. High Point voters, like voters in other North Carolina urban areas, strongly supported Barack Obama.

I didn't count up the columns of numbers on the county's precinct-by-precinct voting chart. I didn't have to. It was clear they favored Obama.

It's difficult, if not impossible, to come up with a precise tally for High Point anyway. Not all High Point voters live in High Point precincts. Some live in county precincts like Friendship 2 and South Deep River. But those are split precincts -- part in the city, part not. I can't tell how many Obama votes in those precincts were cast by High Point residents. Quite a few High Point residents also live and vote in Davidson County.

This ambiguity actually clouds my conclusion about the 2004 election. If you counted only High Point precincts, John Kerry received a handful more votes than did George W. Bush. But I couldn't say Kerry carried High Point because voting in county precincts in which significant numbers of High Point residents vote went heavily for Bush. So I strongly suspected at the time that Kerry did not truly win among all High Point voters.

There's no doubt this time, however. Obama carried High Point. The city is no longer reliably red in presidential elections.

More numbers

Obama won more than 99 percent of the vote in three Greensboro precincts:

1,727 to 14 (McCain) to 2 (Barr) in G68;
1,281 to 10 to 1 in G 73; and
1,767 to 13 to 1 to 1 (write-in) in G 74.

There was no precinct in Guilford County where McCain had anywhere near that level of voter loyalty.

Old favorite Congressman Howard Coble was a bit of a stopper for Republicans. Just glancing at Greensboro and High Point returns, I found 10 precincts where Obama and Kay Hagan won, but so did Coble.

I doubt that means many Democrats were voting for Coble, however. It seems more likely to me that quite a few Republicans were sticking with Coble but crossing over to support Obama and Hagan in those precincts. (Addendum: I have no numbers to back that up and could be wrong. What do you think?)

Endless number crunching can be done with these returns. I wish I had more time.