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August 05, 2004
Electoral Maps
While researching something else that was ruining my morning, I ran across an interesting graphic which bears on the Electoral College post from yesterday. It's a map of the 2000 Presidential election vote, county by county.
It's often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and although one has to be careful about interpreting this picture, I thought it was interesting.
It then occurred to me that it might be interesting to contrast this with a map of the actual 2000 electoral votes.
Note: I colored the states red and blue in my post for easier visual comparison but the larger image is the same.
The bars in the original county-by-county graphic provided some context:
Square miles of counties won:
Gore: 580,334
Bush: 2,422,039
Population of counties won: (note: this is NOT the same as the actual vote, as obviously not every person living in each county voted - it is merely a head count)
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million
The graphics provide some insight into the possible effects of going to a popular vote allocation of electoral votes vs. the present winner-take-all system. One few interesting point raised over on QandO was that the change would increase the incentive for voter fraud, as each party is now fighting for every single vote. Another, raised by the author of yesterday's article and several commenters, was the prospect of contested elections. Imagine the recount fracas in Florida, multiplied, not by 50 states but by 2,334 counties. These may or may not be overwhelming objections, but they are worth considering.
On the otter heiny, do the advantages of bringing the electoral tallies closer to the popular vote outweigh the potential problems? Or would this be, in effect, cancelling out the original intent of the electoral system: to balance the popular vote with the interests of the states; in effect, making the electoral college redundant?
I report, you decide. Because here at Jet Noise, we're always looking out for you.
- Cassandra
August 5, 2004 at 07:07 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Once again, fantastic "journalism". Just don't let the real jouranlists find out that you are showing us facts.
Two things I noticed:
1) The professor's VoteView graphs use Blue-for-Republican and Red-for-Democrat on the Congressional maps. I sent them a friendly email...
2) Check out how Red the Gore states are. New Mexico is about half blue at least, and of course the far East Coast are very blue. But CA, OR, WA, WI, IA, MI, IL, MN, PA, (even) NY MD and DE (which looks all red!!).
Enjoy and be sure to VOTE!!!
Posted by: Tom_with_a_Dream at Aug 5, 2004 9:14:03 AM
Some statistically questionable analysis by KJ, who has a doctorate and therefore must have opinions worthy of respect:
I have posted before about who votes Democratic (you may recall - unemployed, illegals, people in favor of racial discrimination, mob run union members, felons, etc).
But the map offers a different conclusion. It suggests that Democrats are in greater need of water than the rest of us. They tend to live near oceans or large rivers, especially the Rio Grande and the Mississippi.
There some small pockets on Indian Reservations, though they should be called Less-Recently Immigrated American Reservations with Democrats. That must be a mutant form of Democrats that do not need to live next to bodies of water. They must be stopped before the mutation spreads.
Anyway, the Republican must have found a way to drill into the earth to find water, because they can live in those parts of the country not immediately adjacent to water.
This suggests that when a Democrat tells you something, chances are he or she is all wet.
Posted by: KJ at Aug 5, 2004 9:38:44 AM
Well actually counselor, that brings up a point I was going to make yesterday, but didn't, and that is the effect of the recent flood of immigration on the election process.
Recent immigrants tend to settle in urban areas, most of which also happen to be (duh) near the coastlines.
So if we were, for example, to apportion electoral votes on a geographic vote basic (say, by county or district), would this be magnifying the effect of the immigrant vote?
(in case you're wondering, I'm not suggesting an answer to this question - just posing it because I am an annoying human being)
Posted by: Cassandra at Aug 5, 2004 10:19:09 AM
note to self - don't try to type while on phone.
that would be: So if we were, for example, to apportion electoral votes on a geographic vote basis...
Posted by: Cassandra at Aug 5, 2004 10:20:19 AM
I know a low carb way to stop the Less-Recently Immigrated American Reservations with the Democratic mutant strain. It will be in my next book, Atkins for a Life of Cannibalism to Stop the Less-Recently Immigrated American Reservations with the Democratic Mutant Strain.
Posted by: Dr. Atkins at Aug 5, 2004 10:53:57 AM
You know, I am always astounded at the high caliber of intellectual commentary on this forum...
Where else can one find such incisive commentary on the issues of the day?
On the other hand, if it's snark you're looking for, I'm your huckleberry. :)
Posted by: Cassandra at Aug 5, 2004 11:03:38 AM
Some enterprising individual needs to turn the electoral map into an interactive video game.
You could pit the red states against the blue states and watch the vile BushReich gobble up the poor shreiking Gore states as millions of disenfranchised minority voters hold their hands up to their cheeks, Edward Munsch-style, in disbelief and horror...
Posted by: Cassandra at Aug 5, 2004 11:06:28 AM
I'm all over this...
You could even program in Mary Francis Berry popping up from the blue states as they're attacked, hurling spurious allegations at the BushReich.
I'd give her +10 points for chutzpah, +0 points for accuracy but she does major damage.
Posted by: Cassandra at Aug 5, 2004 11:09:33 AM
Great idea. Let's see, who do we know that could program a game like that? Hmmmmmm......
Posted by: KJ at Aug 5, 2004 1:49:21 PM
Oh no... I don't do game programming.
That requires brains.
Posted by: Cassandra at Aug 5, 2004 2:04:56 PM
