Growing gaps found from county to county in presidential race By Bill Bishop AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Sunday, April 4, 2004 The assumption since the 2000 election has been that the United States is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. Nationally, this is still true. At the local level, however, that 50-50 split disappears. In its place is a country so out of balance, so politically divided, that there is little competition in presidential contests between the parties in most U.S. counties, according to an Austin American-Statesman study of election returns since 1948. American democracy is based on the continuous exchange of...