{"id":1786016,"date":"2018-07-27T14:32:45","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T18:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1786016"},"modified":"2018-07-29T14:38:21","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T18:38:21","slug":"the-new-york-timess-very-detailed-map-of-the-2016-u-s-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/07\/the-new-york-timess-very-detailed-map-of-the-2016-u-s-presidential-election\/","title":{"rendered":"The New York Times’s Very Detailed Map of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
New York Times (screen capture)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s 2018. The 2016 U.S. presidential election is nearly two years in the past. But that didn’t stop the New York Times<\/em> from unleashing a new map of the 2016 election results<\/a> earlier this week. On the surface it’s a basic choropleth map: nothing new on that front. But this map drills down a bit further: showing the results by precinct<\/em>, not just by county. The accompanying article<\/a> sets out what the Times<\/em> is trying to accomplish: “On the neighborhood level, many of us really do live in an electoral bubble, this map shows: More than one in five voters lived in a precinct where 80 percent of the two-party vote went to Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton. But the map also reveals surprising diversity.”<\/p>\n

Kenneth Field has some objections to the map<\/a>. “So you have smaller geographical areas. Detailed, yes. Accurate, certainly. Useful? Absolutely not because of the way the map was made.” It’s a choropleth map that doesn’t account for population: “An area that has 100 voters and 90 of them voted Republican is shown as dark red and a 90% share. Exactly the same symbol would be used for an area that has 100,000 voters, 90,000 of whom voted Republican.” It gets worse when that thinly populated precinct is geographically larger. (Not only that: the map uses Web Mercator\u2014it is<\/em> built with Mapbox\u2014so Alaska is severely exaggerated at small scales.) There are, Ken says, other maps that account for population density (not least of which his own dot density map<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> map has a very specific purpose, and Ken is going after it for reasons that aren’t really relevant to that purpose. The map is aimed at people looking at their own and surrounding neighbourhoods: the differences in area and population between a precinct in Wyoming and a precinct in Manhattan wouldn’t normally come up. It works at large scales, whereas Ken’s point is more about small scales: zoom out and the map becomes misleading, or at the very least just as problematic as (or no more special than) any other, less granular choropleth map that doesn’t account for population. The map isn’t meant to be small-scale, doesn’t work at small scales, but then people regularly use maps for reasons not intended by the mapmaker. The mistake, I suspect, is making a map that does not work at every scale available at every scale.<\/p>\n

Update<\/em>: See this post<\/a> for more reactions to the map.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s 2018. The 2016 U.S. presidential election is nearly two years in the past. But that didn’t stop the New York Times from unleashing a new map of the 2016 election results earlier this week.… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[330],"tags":[713,433,726,140],"class_list":["post-1786016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-politics","tag-2016-us-elections","tag-choropleth","tag-election-results","tag-new-york-times","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4361,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/04\/mapping-the-2017-french-presidential-election-first-round\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786016,"position":0},"title":"Mapping the 2017 French Presidential Election (First Round)","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"25 April 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"France held the first round of its presidential election this past\u00a0Sunday. Unlike U.S. presidential elections, it's by popular vote, with the top two vote-getters moving on to a second round in two weeks' time. The major candidates' support was distributed unevenly around the country. Media organizations used several different methods\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3170,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/10\/a-primer-on-election-map-cartography\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786016,"position":1},"title":"A Primer on Election Map Cartography","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 October 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"With\u00a0less than two weeks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election,\u00a0it's time for a refresher on election map cartography, particularly in the context of U.S. presidential elections. Cartograms Let's start with the basics:\u00a0at All Over the Map, Greg Miller explains the problem with U.S. presidential election maps\u2014big states with few electoral\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2012 U.S. presidential results. At right, a cartogram scaled by electoral vote. Maps by Mark Newman.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/newman-cartograms-2012-1024x335.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/newman-cartograms-2012-1024x335.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/newman-cartograms-2012-1024x335.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/newman-cartograms-2012-1024x335.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5738,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/11\/the-new-york-times-maps-the-virginia-governors-race\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786016,"position":2},"title":"The New York Times Maps the Virginia Governor’s Race","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"8 November 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"The\u00a0New York Times\u2019s graphics department generally does very good election maps, and their work on yesterday's gubernatorial election in Virginia is no exception. I particularly like how the interactive map toggles from a standard choropleth map to maps that better account for population density, show the size of each candidate's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/nyt-election-va-2017-1024x559.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/nyt-election-va-2017-1024x559.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/nyt-election-va-2017-1024x559.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/nyt-election-va-2017-1024x559.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3213,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/11\/more-election-cartography-primers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786016,"position":3},"title":"More Election Cartography Primers","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"1 November 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, print subscribers to the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0were treated to a fold-out map showing a\u00a0choropleth map of the 2012 election results at the ZIP code level (above). \"The map is part of a special election section that aims to help explain the political geography of the United States \u2014 identifying where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"nyt-foldout-map","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/nyt-foldout-map-1024x430.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/nyt-foldout-map-1024x430.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/nyt-foldout-map-1024x430.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/nyt-foldout-map-1024x430.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1786024,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/07\/empty-land-doesnt-vote-and-other-hot-takes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786016,"position":4},"title":"‘Empty Land Doesn’t Vote’ and Other Hot Takes","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 July 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"The hot takes about the New York Times\u2019s detailed map of the 2016 U.S. presidential election results (see previous entry) have been coming in fast. Most of the critiques focus on the map's failure to address population density: a sparsely populated but huge precinct appears to have more significance than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/nyt-2016-election-precincts-1024x530.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/nyt-2016-election-precincts-1024x530.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/nyt-2016-election-precincts-1024x530.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/nyt-2016-election-precincts-1024x530.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2310,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/06\/mapping-the-eu-referendum-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786016,"position":5},"title":"Mapping the EU Referendum Results","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"24 June 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Maps of the results of the\u00a0United Kingdom's referendum on remaining in the European Union show\u00a0several different ways of presenting the results. The BBC's election night map is bare-bones, showing which side won which local authority, but not by how much. Appropriate for the moment, and for finding your locality, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"brexit-nyt","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/brexit-nyt-1024x931.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/brexit-nyt-1024x931.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/brexit-nyt-1024x931.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/brexit-nyt-1024x931.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1786016"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1786029,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786016\/revisions\/1786029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1786016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1786016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1786016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}