Eleven of Maryland's 24 counties are in the top 100 most affluent counties by median income.
On Tuesday, Gillespie lost both of these counties by more than twenty percentage points.
The punch-card-voting counties, by contrast, had sharply higher numbers of people tallied as having no vote for president.
There was an attempt effectively to fine the counties by charging them for fielding non-England-qualified players.
East of the Cascade Mountains is Republican territory, and Mr. Romney will win these counties by large margins.
That pattern was repeated across Florida, a survey of the counties by The New York Times indicated.
The state -- and the counties, by extension -- could have to forfeit that money if even one county misses the deadline.
He said that he and his staff are trying to identify underserved counties by analyzing 2000 census data and surveys of railroad and bus lines throughout the region.
Harvard's Equality of Opportunity Project ranked U.S. counties by their success in fostering economic opportunity, measured by the future incomes of children who grew up there.
Those results, however, are probably somewhat behind the pace he would need to carry the whole state; Mr. Romney won both counties by 20 points in 2008.
Villagers are uncertain when they might benefit from a new health-insurance scheme that the government says will be available in 80% of rural counties by 2008.
