Before internet (and cable TV even), they used to print a yearly almanac. Most families got one every year. The year after an election, there would be 50 pages of election result breakdowns by county. I would actually read all those, fascinated by who voted for who.
When JFK was shot, he was in Texas to repair a rift in the party down there, with the 1964 election only a year away. VP LBJ had been a popular sitting liberal Texas senator, and conservative Dem. governor John Connally was at odds with liberal Dem. senator Ralph Yarborough. The whole state of Texas was Democrat then. You'd be amazed how the south totally changed after the Civil Rights Act. Connally switched to Republican and wound up in Nixon's cabinet. Talk about going to hell. And they still resent the CRA down there. Hard to believe, a once progressive state like that flips and stays flipped over equal rights for all citizens. And boy those flipped southern states love their fucking Trump.