Reply #5: Now we're getting silly..

[ahimsa]

If you look at the two links in your reference document (http://lnvb.westside.com/NewMexico/NewMexicoByCounty.html), http://65.160.159.96/County1.htm and http://www.sos.state.nm.us/avrs/COUNTY.HTM, you'll see that the % is not "turnout". It just means that a lot of registered Democrats purportedly voted for Bush (which I think is the real mystery).

For example, Hidalgo County votes:

 JOHN F. KERRY and JOHN EDWARDS Democratic  861 43.8% 
 GEORGE W. BUSH and DICK CHENEY Republican 1081 55.0% 

Registered Voters:

 Republican  665 22.41% 
 Democrats 2,132 71.83% 

That Republican/Demo turnout percent is a useless number (unless there is data out there that says who voted for whom based on their party registration - but that's not in any of these links).

On edit - added the actual links and picked a better example county!