Synchromesh Computing

Statistically, the following charts show various breakdowns based on self-reported demographics collected during the voting. Note that many of these independent-minded people chose to not reveal any demographic information, but 1663 people entered in at least their age and 1642 entered in their education levels.

Chart 1: Self-Identified Gender of Participants

As you can see, the Free State Project Membership is comprised overwhelmingly self-identified as males, which certainly matches the demographics of the Libertarians Party. However, it also matches involvement in politics in general, so there is nothing particularly Earth-shattering in all this.

We wanted to track whether or not people were voting for their own state, a state next door to them (we called that "same region"), in the same compass point (a western state not adjacent but still "western", for example), or people voting for a state completely outside their current location.

Chart 2: Voting by Region. We figured out their current location by their return address.

This result is a little biased towards larger population states, but nevertheless does show that a fair number of people did not mind moving to a state far away from their current state, region, or even compass point. To track gender against region, we found that they were roughly equal in being flexible enough to want to move to far-off places:

Table 2: Did Females Choose Differently Than Males? No.

Chart 3: Ages of Free State Project Voters

As you can see, most FSP members are skewed towards the younger side, with fully 75% being under age 50, and most of them being working age. It has been claimed that FSP people might be burdens on the welfare system of the selected state, but if they are they won't be taking old age benefits from New Hampshire. To check and see if this were the case, as best we could we tried to calculate a number of income related statistics:

Chart 4: Current Income by the Numbers

Not many FSP members currently make over $200,000 (as with the rest of society), but 1290 self-reported being above $20,000. In general, the FSP is comprised of middle and working class people, not rich for the most part (and, given marginal cumulative tax rates, including federal, state, local, property, school, and other taxes, it cannot be said that people making $200,000 to $300,000 are rich, either). The following chart compares income to education, and there are no surprises here: the greater the education level, the greater the income:

Chart 5: Income and Education

Chart 6: Age and Income. The Older, the Wealthier. Any surprises here?

A surprising number are not going to wait until 20,000 members join the Free State Project and choose to move to New Hampshire:

Chart 5: When Will They Move? Sooner than you think!

Some states were openly concerned about a population explosion. In one particularly paranoid and therefore humorous editorial in Vermont by Michael Patno, he expressed the opinion that about 4 people would move to Vermont for every Free State Project member (never mind that Vermont was not chosen - he was concerned that it might be). He thought that this would amount to a huge influx of 80,000 "new Vermonters."

Chart 6: Most are just moving themselves, or with one other person

Breaking down the voters who selected New Hampshire, we find that, out of the number of people who selected it first, most were very well educated with at least some college, if not more. In other words, hardly anyone who had a less than a high school diploma picked New Hampshire for their top selection - or even in their top five.

Chart 7: How Educated Were the Selectors Of New Hampshire?

Chart 8: 38% Are either Professional/Scientific/Technical or in Information Workers. 18% declared "Other"

We believe that a significant number of "Others" are actually students or retired people. The FSP Members have a breadth of talent, but the New Hampshire, being the closest state to a significant high technology area (in this case, Boston/Route 128), probably had a lot to do with it winning. Jobs and job prospects apparently trumped many other concerns.

Conclusion

The Members of the Free State Project have spoken, and rather clearly at that, in their selection of New Hampshire as The Free State. It may be the case that this particular project spawns a second effort to select a western state (or even a western province of Canada) as a relocation settlement.

If this occurs, it will not be due to any fraud or abuse of the process during voting, but rather because some liberty-minded individuals decide, quite simply, they prefer a western environment to establish a new libertarian society. If so, Synchromesh Analysts would be honored to again conduct the vote (if there is one) and certify the results.

Liberty expanding across the land ... who could argue against that? Those that would argue against it, would do themselves a favor in questioning why one would.