Hybrids and Voters in Peabody

Peabody is brown and red: That’s what we found when we compared data from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles to the vote in the 2012 U.S. Senate race.

You can see the results in the map above: Large circles suggest towns with more hybrid ownership per capita, and the red/blue color suggests which way those towns voted last year. In Peabody, 11.5 of every 1,000 vehicles is a hybrid, compared to the state average of 18.

Patch’s research suggests the state has a good number of what might be called “green Republican” communities. More than 40 percent of the communities where Republican Scott Brown carried the vote have an above average numbers of hybrids.

The data is a nice rebuttal to the national trends of hybrid/GOP separation: Niche marketer Experian Marketing Services says that nationally, registered Democrats are 90 percent more likely than registered Republicans to own a hybrid vehicle.

What do you think? Did politics play a part in your car purchasing decision? Do you think you can define a person's political beliefs by what kind of car she drives? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.