Support for and against recall paralleled vaccination rates

Pick any county in California, and it turns out that the percentages of fully vaccinated residents and voters who voted against the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom were similar. San Mateo County: 72% fully vaccinated, 79% no to the recall; Santa Clara County: 74% vaccinated, 76% against the recall; Contra Costa County, 70% vaccinated, 73% against the recall. The correlation underscores that vaccinated voters tended to support Newsom’s Covid policies and aggressive safety protocols.

The Los Angeles Times did the math and created a graphic that shows the straight line correlation.

And at the opposite end, rural and Republican counties that have fought Newsom’s mandates were equally consistent: in Lassen County, 21 percent fully vaccinated, 17% voted no on the recall and Kings County, 34% vaccinated, 37% against the recall. Those counties, in Northern California and the Central Valley, are also where the delta variant has hit the hardest and filled up hospital intensive care wards.

For those in the middle, like Fresno County, 48% are vaccinated, 50% voted against the recall. In San Bernardino County, with 46% vaccinated, 52% voted no

The numbers didn’t match as closely in some counties, but generally the vaccination rate and the no vote were within 10 percentage points.