What the election map REALLY looks like
Even after Barack Obama's landslide win on Tuesday, America's electoral map looks pretty red. Vast oceans of conservatism sprawl through the South and Midwest.
But one cartographer at the University of Michigan has tweaked that image, to better reflect the election's outcome based not on square miles (there's a lot of empty terrain out in conservative country) but on population.
As you can see, Obama won the vast majority of states with big populations -- and lost in many states with small, rural populations.
See the full array of maps -- including a fascinating tapestry that shifts from red through purple to blue here.
posted by Brian Mann @ 11/07/2008 09:24:00 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
This is a very interesting map which shows each state's population reflected by its size on the map - puts things into another perspective. But it still doesn't reflect that there are states that Obama won by not much (N.C.) and vice versa - there's still a lot of red in some "blue" states. Even if one were to look at a New York (a very blue state) map broken down by counties (http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html - click on the N.Y.) - there's a lot of red, all in rural counties... although several switched over in this election - check out the northern counties of the North Country. Of all the maps on the web page Brian sends us to I like the one toward the bottom best - very purpley (purpely?) which is what the United States is really all about....
Mark Kurtz - Saranac Lake
What's truly interesting to me is what this map might look like if it were to factor in the overwhelming majority of people who don't vote at all. While I disagree with the sentiment that many of these non-voters hold (that its all fixed), its awfully hard to argue that they're not right about this especially when we consider that our new "people's messiah" was the recipient of more corporate money than any other candidate in history! Gee, I wonder if the Democrats will take this "historic opportunity" to disband the electoral college and enact Instant Runoff Voting, ballot access and campaign finance reform? (I'm just joking. I know the Democrats would never change our system to make it more democratic even with a majority in both houses. That would be working against their own self-interests and it will never happen.)
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