The 2016 Election Map

🇺🇸 of Our Great Nation 🇺🇸

Click for high resolution version

I’m seeing a lot of election maps on my timeline, celebrating the amount of red as a mandate for governing (or in other cases, bemoaning it view of how America thinks.) But some people seem to be forgetting about that ol’ devil, population density. As someone* once said:

Land doesn’t vote; people do.

When we remember that 80% of Americans live in or around other Americans, in cities, then it’s plain to see that the commonly shared image of “the map” is really a graphic of how much land, raw surface area, is distributed among voters. But land doesn’t vote; people do.

And here’s how the people voted in 2016:

I found this map and now I can’t remember the source post. Does anyone know?

Looks a little different than the traditional map, doesn’t it? Turns out, to state the obvious, that coloring states with vastly different populations presents a very biased view toward less populated states.

Here’s a 2016 electoral map, showing electoral votes and key states:

To explore the map interactively (using 2012 election data), view Tom Pearson’s github project.

For those of us who like to focus on facts not fears, maps and not memes, this is a good reminder of how this system works.

ps. If you’re interested in other cognitive biases that distort the thinking of voters in both political parties, check out my Cognitive Bias Codex, available as a printed poster for home or office. ✌🏼️

* Me.