1. Cartographic Representation: Examples from the 2008 Election Anthony C. Robinson GeoVISTA Center / John A. Dutton e-Education Institute The Pennsylvania State University

2. How many ways can you map an election?

3. Electoral Vote Winners, 2008

4. Population Cartogram – Areas Resized by Population

5. Electoral Vote Cartogram – Areas Resized By # of Electoral Votes

6. County Choropleth – Winners (2 Classes) Choropleth = Color-Filled Areas

7. County Cartogram – Winners, Areas Resized by Population

8. County Choropleth – Percentages of Votes Unclassed Choropleth = Uses Continuous Color Ramp, Not Set # of Color Classes

9. County Cartogram – Percentages of Votes

10. Do maps always tell the truth?

11. Red / Blue Dichotomy In Use, 2000

12. Red / Blue (?) Dichotomy In Use, 2000

13. Red / Blue, Extending Beyond Our Borders

14. Shifts in Voting, Original – NY Times

15. Shifts in Voting, Manipulated Color Saturation – Huffington Post Saturation = Intensity of Color

16. “The Past Isn’t Dead”, Allen Gathman, SE Missouri State University

17. 10 States of American Politics, beyondredandblue.org

18. The View from 10.2006, surveyusa.com

19. Polling Place Equipment, Verified Voting Foundation Color Connotation = The Cultural Meaning of a Color

20. Reported Voting Problems, ourvotelive.org Choropleth Maps = Not Useful to Map Totals, Should Map Rates Instead

21. Obamaland and McCainland, kottke.org

23. What other ways can we look at this?

24. 3D Perspective, Washington Post

25. Voters per Electoral Vote, NY Times

26. Reaction to “The Fish”, Seneca Doane from DailyKos

27. Voting and Population Density, from AxisMaps

28. Words in Campaign Speeches, from AxisMaps

29. Google Earth Mashup, Kenton Ngo of DailyKos Map Mashup = Custom Map Created by Mixing Data From Multiple Web Sources

30. Election maps = entertaining?

31. Informal Real-Time Mapping, from a BeenUp2 Post

32. Poking Fun, The Crikey Electoral College-O-Meter

33. The Election Represented by The Onion

34. What does the rest of the world think?

35. Le Monde, France

36. Global Electoral College, The Economist

37. What these maps have in common…

38.  Every design has its purpose (often more than one)  Many are designed by people who have no cartographic training  The point of view of election maps is often highly opinionated  All of them are worth thinking about!

39. Some closing thoughts…

40.  There is no “best” way to design a map  Every map simplifies reality to communicate an idea  Most people see maps as facts  Take it upon yourself to make responsible maps

41. Thank you…