Red Vs. Blue

September 21, 2010 10:27 PM

"With the midterm elections in the U.S. Senate just six weeks away, everyone is wondering how the balance of power between Republicans and Democrats will shake out after November 2." Wonder no more with Google's 2010 U.S. Election Ratings Map. Information can be filtered by state, type of race (senate, governor, house), and by source. A Google Maps blog entry has more detailed info for those who want to dig deeper into the application. [via TechCrunch]
posted by bayani (20 comments total)

It would be more useful if it actually showed current poll numbers.
posted by clockworkjoe at 10:47 PM on September 21, 2010

I know education in the U.S. sucks and has for a while, but really? This much red? Can we be that stupid? It's only been two years since our president was a blithering idiot with the soul of utter evil as his VP, and so many people are running back to that?
posted by JHarris at 10:48 PM on September 21, 2010 [5 favorites]

I still can't see Boozman succeeding outside of Arkansas' 3rd district. The guy is a total nut. Maybe the rest of the state has been trending farther rightward than I ever imagined. Or are just really pissed at Lincoln. That I could believe.
posted by wierdo at 11:14 PM on September 21, 2010

See also: Sabato's Crystal Ball
posted by eddydamascene at 11:36 PM on September 21, 2010

I wish political visualizations didn't color an entire state's geographical area one color when the size has no relation to the information. For example: it's entirely misleading to represent Montana's 1 House seat as a giant, eye-grabbing blot of red, while Rhode Island's 2 House seats are invisible. How about one uniform-size dot per seat, political map makers? I scream it from the mountain top.
posted by fleacircus at 2:27 AM on September 22, 2010 [5 favorites]

Yeah, you would think the smart people at Teh Goog would have heard of a cartogram by now. By the time you get to what one would look like for the Senate, it gets pretty weird, enough so that while you can tell you are looking at the United States, it is not immediately obvious what states you are looking at. Maybe they need a Flash version where you mouse over some patch of color and the state warps back to its original shape, or there is a pop-up, or what have you.
posted by adipocere at 4:34 AM on September 22, 2010

I wish America had fewer elections. Seriously, you guys are the loud couple fighting next door.
posted by srboisvert at 4:58 AM on September 22, 2010 [6 favorites]

With the midterm elections in the U.S. Senate just six weeks away, everyone is wondering how the balance of power between Republicans and Democrats will shake out after November 2

Oh dear, will the nutcase-theocrats win, or the pretending-to-not-be-nutcase-theocrats-but-paid-for-by-the-same-people win?

Ooooh the excitement is too much!!
posted by pompomtom at 6:04 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wish America had fewer elections. Seriously, you guys are the loud couple fighting next door.

And I am their child hiding under the covers.
posted by milarepa at 6:07 AM on September 22, 2010 [7 favorites]

I wish America had fewer elections. Seriously, you guys are the loud couple fighting next door.

ha. the problem is that if you call the cops we'll cooperate enough to egg your car before getting back to our fight.
posted by lester at 6:07 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

clockworkjoe: "It would be more useful if it actually showed current poll numbers."

Many of these races, particularly non-competitive House races, are polled very infrequently by publically-available sources.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 6:43 AM on September 22, 2010

Yeah, you would think the smart people at Teh Goog would have heard of a cartogram by now. By the time you get to what one would look like for the Senate, it gets pretty weird

Maybe they did think of cartograms and decided that they were unusable for this purpose.

enough so that while you can tell you are looking at the United States, it is not immediately obvious what states you are looking at. Maybe they need a Flash version where you mouse over some patch of color and the state warps back to its original shape, or there is a pop-up, or what have you.

The problem they're trying to solve is that sometimes the unit of analysis varies a great deal with respect to land area. But the worse that variation is, the worse cartograms are at doing their actual job of understandably conveying information. I'm really not sure why cartograms were ever taken seriously.
posted by Jpfed at 7:34 AM on September 22, 2010

Needs a "with Rasmussen"/"without Rasmussen" toggle switch.
posted by gimonca at 8:09 AM on September 22, 2010

How about one uniform-size dot per seat, political map makers?

The small house map on Nate Silver's NYT presence does this, although his larger house map doesn't.
posted by gimonca at 8:18 AM on September 22, 2010

See also http://www.electoral-vote.com/
posted by DreamerFi at 8:52 AM on September 22, 2010

Voter Suppression in Wisconsin, Courtesy of the GOP and Americans for Prosperity
posted by homunculus at 9:15 AM on September 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

I know it's a total derail, but also about election polls (and I had to post it somewhere, sorry):
here in Germany the Green party is beginning to overtake the Social Democrats, and if the trend continues could be senior partner in the next government.
I'm kinda conflicted about the prospect of Claudia Roth as Chancellor
posted by ts;dr at 9:25 AM on September 22, 2010

Harry Reid 45%
Sharron Angle 46%

Thanks, Nevadans. You've made us fail as a species.
posted by Ratio at 10:05 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Holy crap, homunculus. Thanks for sharing that.
posted by naoko at 11:53 AM on September 22, 2010

*sigh* Utah. I am powerless here. *turns off the computer, goes outside*
posted by msbutah at 4:28 PM on September 22, 2010