Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Mapping the U.S. Election Two Ways

A beautiful way to visualize the difference between U.S. states' geographic size and their population size (and therefore electoral votes) from the New York Times:

Maps side by side with red, blue and yellow states for Romney, Obama and up for grabs, one with geographic outlines, the other with scaled squares for each state

I love how the designers managed to preserve the sense of the country's general outline in the electoral vote map, despite the squarification and various sizes of the states. (Although I just noticed that the expansion of Illinois has caused Kansas Nebraska to lose touch with Nebraska Oklahoma.)

Lots more on the Times' page, including an explanation of why Minnesota is listed as leaning Democratic instead of solidly Democratic, an assessment I never thought I would see.
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 8, 2012 at 8:27 AM

    In what map have you ever seen Oklahoma adjacent to Nebraska? There is a minor area called Kansas in between. Even Dorothy would miss her beloved Kansas if it were gone on her return from Oz.

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  2. Daughter Number ThreeMay 8, 2012 at 10:11 AM

    That's what I get for writing a blog post at 7:00 a.m. Thanks, All Day Long. I've corrected it.

    If anyone sees any other geographic amusements in the square map, let me know.

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