That Election Map

UPDATE: Big, huge, whopping correction below regarding maps and projections. Sorry for the haste.
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A while back I posted a map of the 2008 presidential election results:


That's the Newman map, a cartogram which projects the national vote based on state population, i.e. electoral votes, and not on state size, i.e. area.

While checking into a recent (and unrelated) post, I unearthed this nugget:


That's from Rush Limbaugh's site. To be sure, the latter map casts a decidedly different picture of the American electorate, county by county. It's enough to make one wonder whether Newman and Limbaugh were looking at the same country on the eve of the '08 election. But Newman accounted for this:

The areas of red and blue on the cartogram are now proportional to the actual numbers of electoral votes won by each candidate. Thus this map shows at a glance both which states went to which candidate and which candidate won more electoral college votes – something that you cannot tell easily from the normal election-night red and blue map.

But we can go further. We can do the same thing also with the county-level election results and the images are even more striking. Here is a map of US counties, again colored red and blue to indicate Republican and Democratic majorities respectively:

Now the effects we saw at the state level are even more pronounced: the red areas appear overwhelmingly in the majority, an appearance again at odds with the actual results of the election. Again, we can make a more helpful representation by using a cartogram. Here is what the cartogram looks like for the county-level election returns:

Okay, me again. Pretty striking. The cartogram clearly offers us a new way to look at elections, much in the way the Mercator Projection [Woops! Big correction here--Ed.] Peters Projection changes how we look at the U.S. in relation to the rest of the earth. Newman doesn't stop there, but goes on to account for "purple" parts of the country, thus taking the study even further in scale.



And the resulting cartogram?




Less red than ever. And pretty much no matter how you slice it, a clear majority of the country trended Democratic in the last election: 375 to 173.

The Newman Map

For those of you, like me, who are lost without all the eye candy that the pre-election electoral maps represented, take heart. There's still plenty of colorful representation to go around. Mark Newman shows us what the red and blue map looks like when we account for state populations as opposed to land mass.


Not bad, eh? Makes me want to ask Jon Meacham if we're really and truly a center-right nation. Much more eye candy at the source. Thanks, Cody, for the link.

It's a New Day

Just when you think you've maybe had enough of will.i.am, the Obama montage-to-music proves irresistible all over again.



Did I just connect Barack to Kevin Bacon?

Gracias, Luke, for the link.

FOX Has the Fraud Guns Loaded

At FOX News, John Lott tries to explain why if Al Franken ekes out a win in Minnesota it will be due to fraud.

Not-So-Random Pic

Has everyone seen this picture?

Musgrave Not Over It

I'm particularly pleased to see the Denver Post run this article pointing to the blatant poor sportsmanship exhibited by Marilyn Musgrave and her campaign. Five days after the election, Musgrave still has not conceded the race, has not congratulated her opponent, and has not returned calls for comment. This only reaffirms, in my mind, the rather unflattering opinion I hold for Musgrave's character.

The reason I'm happy to see the Post run this short piece is because the Post, much to the chagrin of readers statewide, offered Musgrave its blessing this election cycle on some mighty thin rationale.

The Right Words

Garrison Keillor offers up some practical advice and heartfelt thanks to the president-elect.

Headline of the Day

This makes me laugh out loud. As if the requests hadn't piled up already.

Results: CO CD 4

For those out-of-staters who were interested in the results of Colorado's CD 4--the brutal race to oust Marilyn Musgrave--I'm happy to post that Betsy Markey won. Decidedly. And Musgrave, according to reports, went down very much in the same fashion that she legislated. Bitterly.

Much to Do

When I say "much to do," I'm not just talking about Obama's transition team. A palpable fug of denial hangs over me for what my world involves between now and Monday, so I'll keep this brief.

There's been a lot of curiosity over what the polls looked like yesterday. I was prepared to face long lines, conflicts, manipulations, election incompetence, and the like. Aside from being shy a couple election judges when we opened Casa Loma (an affordable housing facility for seniors) to voting for Denver precincts 414 and 415 yesterday, everything went quite smoothly. Initial observations that struck me:

• Between the 8 election judges who worked our polling location yesterday, we numbered 7 registered Democrats and 1 unaffiliated voter.
• Poll watchers for the Colorado Democratic Party and the Campaign for Change (also Democratic) arrived at the polling location before the polls opened. Student poll watchers and a couple of ACORN-type poll watchers (read "young hippies") popped in and out during the day. Only one Republican poll watcher checked in at our location all day. We had not posted numbers yet as a result of late ballot pickups, and he did not stay more than 15 minutes. We did not see him again, nor any other Republican poll watcher, all day.
• While there were signs approaching the polling place (beyond the 100-foot zone) for Obama, Udall, No on 48 and Yes on 59, there was not one sign for McCain or any right-leaning propaganda of any sort.
  
• No voter was challenged on eligibility in our location all day.
• Voter wait times may have reached 30-40 minutes during a rush at 7 am when we opened the doors and only had one election book judge to check voters in. The rest of the day, most voters at Casa Loma walked right in and were voting within 3-5 minutes.
• We handed out approximately 240 regular ballots and helped voters complete perhaps 50 or 60 provisional ballots, which remain to be counted yet after the decisive early returns last night. Fairly light turnout.
  
• Speculation yesterday suggested that over 50% of Denver House District 4 had already voted before Tuesday, November 4.
• The election judges with whom I worked were gracious, hard-working, patient, and extremely capable. The poll watchers who turned out were ethical and conscientious. On the whole, I have a quite favorable impression of the Denver Elections process, from what little I saw.
  
• Despite being in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood, there was no bilingual election judge. I was as close as we had, y mi español es muy, muy feo. But with a little patience and a sense of humor from a couple Spanish-only voters, I did help at least two very excited voters to successfully cast their ballots.
  

That's about all I've got. We were breaking down already 10 minutes before closing time (7 pm). We kept several of the 20 election booths standing. They remained empty. Only one last minute mail-in ballot came in at the wire. I was at the bar watching results come in by 8 pm.

Get Out The Vote

No posts today on plavwriter. Today's a big day, and we all gotta get out there and do what we can. Take it from Matthew Broderick:



Volunteer. Make phone calls. Drive neighbors to the polls. Remind family and friends to make the time. And remind everybody: don't get out of line. Hang in there, even if the lines are ridiculous. The campaign has crews prepped to deliver water and snacks to voters who are kept waiting.

Everybody votes. Don't take no for an answer, and don't let anybody get pushed out of a polling place without voting.

Denver, 66 Days Ago

Denver, 66 Days Ago

Denver, 66 Days Ago

For Obama, From Around the World

We've been getting notes and updates recently from friends worldwide. Here are a couple of quick hits on the eve of an election that literally the whole world may be watching. If you have more from friends and acquaintances far and wide, please send and I will post here.

Jeff from New Zealand:

You have worked hard for a cause and I hope that it all goes well for you (and the rest of the world) as we need the change even here in New Zealand. . . it is a real shame that Obama's gran did not get to see what will be one of the biggest changes in US political history. I am in Australia at the moment and it is big news here too.

Amy from Canada (via Facebook status update): "Amy is on the Obama train!"

Cody, in Dakar, Senegal (via Facebook status update): "People are talking in the streets of Dakar: 'I hope Obama wins, incharlat....'"

From Joss, a Brit living in Hungary:

I have to say I am once again uncontrollably excited about things going on in your house which I have no say in. I do trust that this time we won't be in for a scare result. That Obama man is just so convincing he only makes you feel good about the future.

Anything to add?

Poll Tax

Think the poll tax was abolished 44 years ago? Rachel Maddow says think again.

Barack Obama: Credible

In the course of my work today, I was compelled to look up the word "credibility" at Merriam-Webster Online. Here's the definition: "the quality or power of inspiring belief."

People all over the world have come to recognize Barack Obama's credibility. So it's only fitting that his picture really does appear under the dictionary definition, in the form of an online advertisement to get out the vote.

McCain a Raiders Fan

Oops. Bad news for the McCain-Palin ticket in Denver yesterday. Yes, the Broncos lost, which put Coloradans in a bad enough mood to begin with. But then there was this.

Colorado CD 4

There are few Republicans whom Democrats would like to unseat as badly as Colorado's Marilyn Musgrave. And campaign contributions tell the story. According to the Colorado Independent, challenger Betsy Markey's campaign has benefited from generous sums from Democratic Party heavyweights.

Congressional Dems Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, James Clyburn and Rahm Emanuel have contributed at least $40,500 from their own warchests in addition to campaigning and fundraising for the candidate. The Independent cites Stuart Rothenberg in suggesting that, at this point in the race, Musgrave appears to be the underdog. Meanwhile, we wait to see.

What Next for Obama 2.0?

Open question: What's to become of Obama's dynamic and impressive social networking platform, my.barackobama.com, after the election?