In the cold, gray numbers of election returns and exit poll percentages, a reader with some imagination can find clues to people's deep feelings, their hopes and fears, their self-images and moral values.
This is especially true in presidential primaries. In most general elections, 80 percent of voters vote for candidates of the party they prefer. In primaries, voters choose between specific individuals with greater differences in experience, background and character than on issues.
So it has been in this year's contests, featuring candidates most voters didn't know much about and about whom their judgment has often shifted. The lead in national polls has changed 11 times since August.
One constant factor in the 14 contests with exit polls is that
Mitt Romney has tended to run best among high-income and high-education voters. His leading opponents -- Newt Gingrich in South Carolina and Georgia, Ron Paul in Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia, and Rick Santorum everywhere else -- have run best among low-income and low-education voters.
