#Election2012 – what we can learn from maps

Ok – here are some interesting data points for people like me who care too much and are interested in what we can learn from the 2012 Election.

Maps 

Oftentimes political parties will show maps to prove points about the state of the electorate or the general feeling of voters across the country. This map is an example of a bad visual representation of how America voted in 2012:

Red means a Republican won that county. Blue means the Democrat won the county. Yes, those are county lines on the map.

There are a few reasons this map doesn’t work, but the main one should be pretty simple: it doesn’t take population into account.