clauclauclaudia: (kerry-edwards)
clauclauclaudia ([personal profile] clauclauclaudia) wrote2004-11-04 03:04 pm

blue states, red states

Yes, it's very frustrating as a "blue" voter (okay, I hate these terms, but they've become universal shorthand) to see the geographical map, on which red is super-abundant even in election years that are not this one. I like to double-check with maps like http://www.electoral-vote.com/carto/nov04c.html , which are proportional by population rather than by area.

I also like the map that [livejournal.com profile] postvixen put up, and her reasons for posting it. By and large, the "red states" aren't all that red and the "blue states" aren't all that blue, you know. Here's her post, and thank you to MSNBC.com and BoingBoing for the map.

I decided to combine the two and look at a purple, population-proportionate map. And it's behind the cut.

Note that I had to improvise DC, as it wasn't painted in the MSNBC original. But it went 90% Kerry, so that's about right.



Now I want to see the same thing by county. Anyone?

[No image? Try http://www.offhand.org/claudia/images/purple-proportional-map.jpg ]

[Edited 1/28/2012: for posterity, more and better maps at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2004/ and elsewhere on that site ]

[identity profile] bunyip.livejournal.com 2004-11-04 12:31 pm (UTC)(link)
That's a very interesting map.
ext_86356: (Default)

[identity profile] qwrrty.livejournal.com 2004-11-04 12:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Nice work! This map is not drawn proportional to population, but it shows you breakdowns by all U.S. counties:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm

[identity profile] jheaton.livejournal.com 2004-11-04 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I can't see the map. bantha.org is refusing the connection. *sob*

[identity profile] arsmith.livejournal.com 2004-11-04 04:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not really sure, but just eyeballing it, it seems that blueness is pretty proportional to population density. Or, rather, how compacted the people choose to live.

[identity profile] arsmith.livejournal.com 2004-11-04 04:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I've been on your friends list for months now. Figured you'd forgotten about me.

I'm not sure what's going on with new mexico in those county by county maps, myself. I'm starting to think all the liberals aren't stopped by the Raton pass and dribble down to new mexico.

[identity profile] wolfheart17.livejournal.com 2004-11-04 05:03 pm (UTC)(link)
My girlfriend (who is from Alabama) conjectures that the combined effects of:
1) de facto geographic racial segregation,
2) 25% of Alabama voters being African American
3) 91% of African American Alabamans voting for Kerry
could explain the county map in Alabama. This assessment sounds quite reasonable to me, but since I am too lazy to get all the statistics, will remain a hypothesis.

[personal profile] cheshyre 2004-11-04 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Wonderful! I was thinking of doing such a coloring job myself, but you beat me to it.

Would you mind if I posted this to [livejournal.com profile] riba_rambles? I'd copy the image onto my own server so not to mess up your bandwidth (not that I get *that* many hits).

Let me know, okay?

[personal profile] cheshyre 2004-11-04 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Forgive me, but I couldn't wait any longer to post this (I wanted it up tonight before I went to bed).
If you want me to remove the post or the image, let me know.

[personal profile] cheshyre 2004-11-04 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry 'bout that.
I swapped it to point to your server, so you should be able to see the hits henceforth.

[personal profile] cheshyre 2004-11-04 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
And if you want, I can give you *my* sitestats on that image, in case anybody else picked it up.
ext_14081: Part of a image half-designed as a bookplate. Colored pencil and ink, dragon reading (close-up on face) (Default)

[identity profile] metasilk.livejournal.com 2004-11-05 02:52 pm (UTC)(link)
a "blue" voter (okay, I hate these terms, but they've become universal shorthand)

I encourage you to, if you hate the shorthand, to refuse to use it. We don't have to adopt commonly-used terms to be understood, especially if the metaphors are either ridiculous or frame (http://www.changethis.com/5.GeorgeLakoff) a discussion in emotion terms we disagree with or find invalid.

[identity profile] pickledginger.livejournal.com 2004-11-10 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent! Thanks. A very thought-provoking way of looking at the nation. And it undoes some of the overemphasis of northern states of the standard Mercator projection.

* is amused that Calif. comes out so square *

By county

[identity profile] pickledginger.livejournal.com 2004-11-10 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
over here!
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_11/005122.php
(http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_11/005122.php)
ext_14081: Part of a image half-designed as a bookplate. Colored pencil and ink, dragon reading (close-up on face) (Default)

[identity profile] metasilk.livejournal.com 2004-11-11 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Agreed on pet peeve, although the structure of the essay suggests why they want it presented in a certain way. But not as accessible as it could... should? be.

Good point about red and blue making purple map powerful.