{"id":357,"date":"2017-01-23T02:45:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T02:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/?p=357"},"modified":"2017-01-23T02:45:14","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T02:45:14","slug":"visualization-redesign-the-ambiguity-of-presidential-election-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/2017\/01\/23\/visualization-redesign-the-ambiguity-of-presidential-election-map\/","title":{"rendered":"Visualization Redesign: The Ambiguity of Presidential Election Map"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Data Visualization always aims at providing clarity to the audience. More clear\u00a0the visualization, easier it is for the audience to better judge the numbers they are seeing. Having said that, on account of the completion of recent presidential elections, I would like to shed some light on the ambiguous presidential election map we are shown during the elections.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/4TzTDoq2CJZ5UxwhqqHb4iKUxC0=\/800x0\/filters:no_upscale()\/cdn0.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/6493643\/Screen%20Shot%202016-05-16%20at%202.28.42%20PM.png\" alt=\"Map of 2012 presidential election results\" width=\"800\" height=\"446\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Map of 2012 presidential election results<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our TV screens are bombarded with the above image trying to tell the audiences who might win. But this map is of little use considering the priority of this map is geographic accuracy and NOT electoral importance. In the elections, the electoral importance of a state and not its geographical size decides the results. Massachusetts has four times as many electoral votes as Montana but a much smaller geographic area. Now you see where the confusion is! To give a clearer understanding of the election proceedings, The New York Times designed this &#8220;nifty alternative&#8221;.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn0.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/31IepbRk9VSkzRMRVYcSFhVW5W8=\/800x0\/filters:no_upscale()\/cdn0.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/6493647\/Screen%20Shot%202016-05-16%20at%203.55.13%20PM.png\" alt=\"The Redesigned Alternative\" width=\"800\" height=\"446\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Redesigned Alternative<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As you can see the states are depicted by a square and the state&#8217;s electoral importance decides the size of the square.The size is approximated in proportion to the number of electoral votes.\u00a0The squares are arranged according\u00a0to the geographical location so as to not cause any confusion over the location and can locate the states easily.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Reference:\u00a0http:\/\/elections.nytimes.com\/2012\/ratings\/electoral-map<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data Visualization always aims at providing clarity to the audience. More clear\u00a0the visualization, easier it is for the audience to better judge the numbers they are seeing. Having said that, on account of the completion of recent presidential elections, I would like to shed some light on the ambiguous presidential election map we are shown &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/2017\/01\/23\/visualization-redesign-the-ambiguity-of-presidential-election-map\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Visualization Redesign: The Ambiguity of Presidential Election Map<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1871,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":1,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"schandawale","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/author\/schandawale\/"},"qubely_comment":1,"qubely_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"Data Visualization always aims at providing clarity to the audience. More clear\u00a0the visualization, easier it is for the audience to better judge the numbers they are seeing. Having said that, on account of the completion of recent presidential elections, I would like to shed some light on the ambiguous presidential election map we are shown&hellip;","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1871"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/dataviz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}