Perusing Past Election Result Maps on Wikipedia

This morning I've been using Wikipedia to go over presidential election results from the past 70+ years, concentrating on the nationwide maps showing the general election results, broken down by individual counties.  I was surprised that my current home county of Alachua, home to the University of Florida and a supposed "blue" Democratic area in northern Florida surrounded by a sea of "red" Republican counties, went for George (H.W.) Bush in 1988 over Michael Dukakis.  And in the extremely close election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960, it was the Republican Nixon who won Alachua while surrounding counties went for JFK.  But then again, that 1960 election was the last one that consistently had the South pretty much run by very conservative Democrats (the "Boll Weevils").  For example, if you look at the map showing where the biggest support for Franklin Roosevelt was in his 1944 election against Thomas Dewey, it was in the southern states.  But in 1964, the South underwent a realignment that would only be interrupted when favorite son candidates Jimmy Carter (Georgia) and Bill Clinton (Arkansas) successfully ran for the high office.  Conservative wing Republican Barry Goldwater won the Deep South in '64 and, four years later, independent candidate George Wallace would split it with Nixon.  Nixon swept the area (and almost the rest of the country) from George McGovern in 1972, and the shift of conservative southern Democrats to the Republican Party had begun. Still, there are pockets of strong Democratic regions in states like Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina in spite of their states' now consistently Republican orientation.  However, there are other states in the country whose shifts are a bit more puzzling...

Until the past few elections, for example, Kentucky was one of those states that could go either way.  The Democratic strong areas were always in its far western area near the Mississippi River and in its far eastern area near West Virginia.  Now those areas seem to have gone over to the Republicans.  Speaking of West Virginia, it used to be strongly Democratic...but has undergone a flip-flop of its own.  Another state that has drastically changed its political orientation is Oklahoma, which used to have a large Democratic base in its southeastern section but which now seems to be uniformly Republican...

Being someone who loves to pore over maps, I could spend hours upon hours looking at the ones Wikipedia provides.  I trust their data, although I know that there are areas that Wikipedia's articles might just be suspect for their objectivity.  But when it comes to data like this, they are a great source.  They're also useful for keeping up with sports standings, too!