Maps!

A quick confession: I've been a map junkie since I was a wee child. Once again, I have only my family to blame as they would use maps on roadtrips as a Method of Distraction & Education for my energetic little self. When I was 16, Aunt Betsy gained more than a few grey hairs when we traveled in Europe because I had a habit of just memorizing the map of the town/city we were in (e.g. Vienna, Munich, Cologne) so I wouldn't have to be bothered with carrying it around. (gotta love that combination of serious nerd with Gen-X slacker, go team!)

So, of course, since we just had The Presidential Election to Define All Elections, I found some nifty maps*** which help tell the tale pretty darn well.

To start, an overview on the state-level:
(per usual, click on pic to embiggen. heh.)












yeahyeahyeah, everyone has seen this map. But seriously, look at it. Look at that giant honking swath of blue that extends from Maine to North Carolina and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River minus Appalachia. That's ALOT of blue. Frankly, that's most of "The Union" from That War of Unlawful Northern Aggresson. (I joke because I love, please don't hurt me Laurel.) However, you'll note that visually, there's still more red than blue.

Ok, so moving on. Let's zoom in and look at the election on a county-by-county level:












Whoa, now that's ALOT of red...what gives? Well, given that Obama only won 53% of the popular vote--that's @66million votes compared to McCain's roughly 58million votes--the amount of red and blue on the map should be approximately equal. And also, don't forget that the traditionally red states are alot larger, physically, than the traditionally blue states. (e.g. Texas vs. Maryland)

So...what happened?












Well, as evidenced by the popular vote and the electoral vote, MORE people voted for Obama than they did for McCain. Which, yeah, duuuh. But it really is just that simple. Of the 124 million votes cast, more went to the Democratic candidate--which, in turn, caused the electoral votes to go to the Democratic candidate. And that's how you ended up with states like Indiana going for Obama--yeah, they're a historically hard-core red state, but more Obama fans showed up to vote and so Obama won.

For those who want no pictures and just rows and rows of percentages go here.

***You can toggle each map between the results of the last 5 presidential elections--which is WAY more fun and addictive than it sounds. Go ahead. Compare '92 to '00 and then '00 to '08, it'll blow some synapses.