mapping elections 2012

In a typical map of the results of the 2012 election, the states are colored red or blue to indicate whether a majority of their voters voted for the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, or the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, respectively. Looking at the top map gives the impression that the Republican won the election handily, since the map fails to take account of the population distribution: the blue states may be small in area, but they represent a large number of voters.

The Economist does a better visual information (middle map) because the balloons represen- ting number of electors representing voters are colored red and blue, not the state areas.

Mark Newman takes a rather drastic approach making a state area proportional to the number of voters (bottom map). Drastic and inapprop-riate, because to be able to recognize the shape (outline) of a state is essential for the visual information on a particular state. True, the ratio of total blue colored area to total red colored might indicate the election winer, if you can estimate that, but it hardly justifies the approach. More on Newman's cartograms [HERE].