Post-election maps

Having seen one US post-elec­tion map too many, I final­ly rea­li­zed what I so very much dis­lik­ed about them – the color-coded maps show­ing all that red give a dis­tor­ted view of the electorate. 

Area is not the inte­res­t­ing fac­tor, popu­la­ti­on den­si­ty is. It’s true that the US map looks fair­ly red, lea­ding to the con­clu­si­on that an over­whel­ming majo­ri­ty of the US citi­zens voted Bush. 

This isn’t so.

It’s just spar­se­ly popu­la­ted states. 

Micha­el Gast­ner has been doing rese­arch in dis­to­ring maps accor­ding to dif­fe­rent fac­tors; his home­page curr­ent­ly pro­min­ent­ly fea­tures a map of the US that evens out the popu­la­ti­on. And then, sud­den­ly, it’s a lot more even.

Thank you, Erich for dis­cus­sing this with me and of cour­se for poin­ting out Micha­el Gast­ner to me.