Visualizing electoral college politics: exercise in displaying relationships between variables

Reader Berry B. sent in a tip quite some months ago that I just pulled out of my inbox. He really liked the Washington Post's visualization of the electoral college in the Presidential election. (link)

One of the strengths of this project is the analysis that went on behind the visualization. The authors point out that there are three variables at play: the population of each state, the votes casted by state, and the number of electoral votes by state. A side-by-side comparison of the two tile maps gives a perspective of the story:

The under/over representation of electoral votes is much less pronounced if we take into account the propensity to vote. With three metrics at play, there is quite a bit going on. On these maps, orange and blue are used to indicate the direction of difference. Then the shade of the color codes the degree of difference, which was classified into severe versus slight (but only for one direction). Finally, solid squares are used for the comparison with population, and square outlines are for comparison with votes cast.

Pick Florida (FL) for example. On the left side, we have a solid, dark orange square while on the right, we have a square outline in dark orange. From that, we are asked to match the dark orange with the dark orange and to contrast the solid versus the outline. It works to some extent but the required effort seems more than desirable.

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I'd like to make it easier for readers to see the interplay between all three metrics.

In the following effort, I ditch the map aesthetic, and focus on three transformed measures: share of population, share of popular vote, and share of electoral vote. The share of popular vote is a re-interpretation of what Washington Post calls "votes cast".

The information is best presented by grouping states that behaved similarly. The two most interesting subgroups are the large states like Texas and California where the residents loudly complained that their voice was suppressed by the electoral vote allocation but in fact, the allocated electoral votes were not far from their share of the popular vote! By contrast, Floridians had a more legitimate reason to gripe since their share of the popular vote much exceeded their share of the electoral vote. This pattern also persisted throughout the battleground states.

The hardest part of this design is making the legend:

 

 

 

Comments

[Oldgulph]

The National Popular Vote bill is 61% of the way to guaranteeing the majority of Electoral College votes and the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the country, by changing state winner-take-all laws (not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but later enacted by 48 states), without changing anything in the Constitution, using the built-in method that the Constitution provides for states to make changes.

All voters would be valued equally in presidential elections, no matter where they live.
Candidates, as in other elections, would allocate their time, money, polling, organizing, and ad buys roughly in proportion to the population

Every vote, everywhere, for every candidate, would be politically relevant and equal in every presidential election.
No more distorting, crude, and divisive and red and blue state maps of predictable outcomes, that don’t represent any minority party voters within each state.
No more handful of 'battleground' states (where the two major political parties happen to have similar levels of support) where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 38+ predictable states that have just been 'spectators' and ignored after the conventions.

The bill would take effect when enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes—270 of 538.
All of the presidential electors from the enacting states will be supporters of the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC)—thereby guaranteeing that candidate with an Electoral College majority.

In 2017, the bill has passed the New Mexico Senate and Oregon House.
The bill was approved in 2016 by a unanimous bipartisan House committee vote in both Georgia (16 electoral votes) and Missouri (10).
Since 2006, the bill has passed 35 state legislative chambers in 23 rural, small, medium, large, red, blue, and purple states with 261 electoral votes.
The bill has been enacted by 11 small, medium, and large jurisdictions with 165 electoral votes – 61% of the way to guaranteeing the presidency to the candidate with the most popular votes in the country

NationalPopularVote