Oct 11 2008
A look at the electoral map, please
As November 4th draws nearer and candidates buckle down and fight for votes in the key states, lets take a look at how the electoral map is shaping up.
So without further ado, I now direct you to the worst and most crudely drawn map of the United States you’ve ever seen and hopefully will ever see in your entire life. Apologies ahead of time.
Oooookay, once again sorry for that. Why is Kentucky so big? I don’t know. Why does Minnesota look pregnant? I don’t know. Why can’t I draw the United States correctly? I blame standardized testing. Anyways — let’s examine what the map is telling us.
The mark for winning is at 270 electoral votes. Let’s assume that the leaning states are still too close to call (because if we don’t, Barack Obama at 277 already has enough). Obama currently has 211 that are solidly for him (Dark Blue). John McCain has 143 solidly for him (Dark Red).
Now this leaves 184 votes that are too close to call. 66 of those are leaning more towards Obama, while 15 (Georgia) are leaning towards McCain. We’ll go ahead and give McCain Georgia.
What this means is that in order for McCain to win he would have to take all of the swing states (giving him a 261 count) and then either Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota or Washington, all of which are leaning towards Obama.
It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to tell that this doesn’t look promising for the McCain camp. It’s still too early to call anything for certain, but the numbers definitely aren’t in his favor. Even if McCain can manage to take one of the states leaning towards Obama, then all Obama would have to do is just take one of the swing states and he would win.
I applaud your effort. Of course, if you want to see an electoral map with states no longer considered swing, but leaning either direction, you can look at www.pollster.com
www.fivethirtyeight.com
www.realclearpolitics.com
I know when I’m feeling down, I do.
Yeah, I thought about just copying and pasting realclearpolitics map, but this just seemed more fun. That is until I realized just how hard it is to draw with a mouse.
threedegrees thank you for the pollster link. Its like prozac for my eyes!
I think you did a very nice job on the map ;) I made my 7th graders draw maps till they wanted to kill me and I’d definately give this one an A (you remembered Alaska and Hawaii wtg!) Hehehe
Aw shucks, you’re too kind
I love this map. It is like a Rorschach! And Maine is saying We’re #1! Is there anyway to animate the map, so when you say “Georgia is leaning” the map could actually lean…I think this map needs to hang out until Nov 5th — And I am obviously in need of humor. :) ~k
haha I’ll have to look into the leaning thing. And I promise a new one on November 4th.
Yeah, I saw the Philly welcome a few hours ago. Oddly enough, the Daily Kos had it posted the nanosecond it was posted on youtube. Go fig. She apparently decried the crowd for booing her daughter after she went to all the trouble of putting a Flyers jersey on her. Fucking dolt.
Hey I like your map and thrilled to see that it’s pretty much in the bag for Obama. Also, thanks for commenting on my blog.
Nice image,
I, personally, hope this is accurate as I am a big Obama fan. I had my heart broken in the last election when I checked one of these things the night before the 2004 Election and it said Kerry was leading. Granted, those were different circumstances, but I was so disappointed when the exact opposite happened.
Can you believe the election is less then a month away?
This map made my day. It looks like the Minnesota National Guard has captured a big chunk of the Dakotas.
wow, you did all the graph? it is very impressive, considering the time it takes to do that. the map looks more red than blue, but if we consider the other shades of blue, then, clearly the point is with Obama.
thanks for leaving a comment in my blog, i really appreciate it. and yes, i took all those pictures, it is my hobby, but I guess a lot easier than drawing the map using computer.