| Year | Ellis county | Kansas |
| 1984 | 68-31 | 66-33 |
| 1988 | 50-49 | 56-43 |
| 1992 | 37-32-31 | 39-34-27 |
| 1996 | 57-35-8 | 54-36-9 |
| 2000 | 58-35 | 58-37 |
| 2004 | 65-33 | 62-37 |
| 2008 | 66-32 | 56-42 |
| 2012 | 72-26 | 60-38 |
It's a few points more Democratic than all of its west Kansas neighbors through all of these elections. A handful of its neighbors were also close in 1988, but Ellis was the only one to actually switch.
And over the last decade it's now firmly more Republican than the state as a whole, just like the rest of west Kansas.
So what makes it noticeably more Democratic for its area? And what happened in 1988?
