maps maps maps maps maps

[topaz]

The current meme going around seems to be electoral maps. We've all seen the state-by-state electoral breakdown, but here are some of the more interesting versions I've seen:

At http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm, a map of Democratic and Republican votes, broken down by county rather than by state:


At http://www.electoral-vote.com/carto/nov04c.html, a "cartogram," which is apparently a map scaled to population rather than area:


From http://www.boingboing.net. This map describes just the margin of victory. Each state is colored a shade of purple depending on how many Republican (red) or Democrat (blue) votes it got. This gives a much better idea of how mixed the vote was:


moominmolly and claudia_ each posted a purple cartogram, combining the last two ideas. I think they did this independently, but I'm not sure. claudia_ posted her version here:


And moominmolly's is here:


I think this one is my favorite. A purple map drawn by county rather than by state. From KieranHealy.org.


Kieran links to a really huge version of this one: 1547x1053, 400KB.

Comments

Even better map

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, you might be interested in my maps here

http://obsidianorder.blogspot.com/2004/10/red-and-blue-mapping-votes.html

I think they're the best but of course I'm biassed ;)

The standard blue-red map has two problems... in rgb colors a certain red value like (128,0,0) seems stronger than the same blue value (0,0,128), and the midpoint is shifted towards the blues i.e. (0,64,64) is more blue than red. So you really don't get a good picture. I've really tried to fix both problems with some fancy math. Check it out.

Re: Even better map

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

That map is really cool. Can you do it for 2004 as well as 2000?

I think your point about IL and CA is very, very sound. I know many people (overwhelemingly living in SF and LA) whou could not understand how Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor. But it was easy to understand why he won and why they were surprised when you looked at the map of results by county (http://www.uselectionatlas.org/GOVERNOR/GENERAL/gov_stateca.php).

Re: Even better map

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I was trying to figure out exactly the right thing to do with the purple county map -- perhaps express population density as color intensity? -- but I like your solution of using brightness instead.

Re: Even better map

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I agree - that's a great way to visualize the result!

Is this a project you're still working on? Would it be feasible to try to plot similar maps for the 2004 election?

Re: Even better map

[khedron.livejournal.com]

Excellent -- thank you! I like yours better than this map (http://www.esri.com/industries/elections/graphics/results2004_lg.jpg), which conveys the same idea, but I like your use of white for open space better.