{"id":1786024,"date":"2018-07-29T14:33:36","date_gmt":"2018-07-29T18:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1786024"},"modified":"2018-07-29T14:33:36","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T18:33:36","slug":"empty-land-doesnt-vote-and-other-hot-takes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/07\/empty-land-doesnt-vote-and-other-hot-takes\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Empty Land Doesn’t Vote’ and Other Hot Takes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
New York Times (screen capture)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The hot takes about the New York Times<\/em>\u2019s detailed map of the 2016 U.S. presidential election results<\/a> (see previous entry<\/a>) 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 a tiny district crowded by people. See, for example, Andrew Middleton’s post on Medium<\/a>, Keir Clarke’s post on Maps Mania<\/a> or this post on Wonkette<\/a>\u2014or, for that matter, a good chunk of cartographic Twitter for the past few days. (It’s not just Ken<\/a>, is what I’m saying.)<\/p>\n

The responses to those critiques generally do two things. They point out that the map had a specific purpose\u2014as the Times<\/em>\u2019s Josh Katz says,<\/a> “we wanted to use the 2016 results to make a tool that depicted the contours of American political geography in fine detail, letting people explore the places they care about block by block.” As he argues in the full Twitter thread<\/a>, showing population density was not the point: other maps already do that.\u00a0Others explore the “empty land doesn’t vote” argument: Tom MacWright thinks<\/a> that’s “mostly a bogus armchair critique.” Bill Morris critiques the “acres don’t vote” thesis in more detail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Relatedly, Wired<\/em> had a piece last Thursday<\/a> on the different ways to map the U.S. election results, in which Ken Field’s gallery of maps<\/a> plays a leading role.<\/p>\n

Previously: The New York Times\u2019s Very Detailed Map of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… 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-1786024","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":5738,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/11\/the-new-york-times-maps-the-virginia-governors-race\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786024,"position":0},"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":3400,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/11\/the-new-york-times-maps-the-2016-u-s-presidential-election\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786024,"position":1},"title":"The New York Times Maps the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 November 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The\u00a0New York Times has a first-rate graphics department, and they've come up with some stunning ways to depict the 2016 U.S. presidential election results. They updated their maps of so-called \"landslide counties\" (see previous entry), which was straightforward enough. Their feature on how Trump reshaped the election map, with arrows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2016-election-nyt-two-americas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/2016-election-nyt-two-americas-1024x326.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/2016-election-nyt-two-americas-1024x326.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/2016-election-nyt-two-americas-1024x326.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/2016-election-nyt-two-americas-1024x326.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3213,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/11\/more-election-cartography-primers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786024,"position":2},"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":2310,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/06\/mapping-the-eu-referendum-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786024,"position":3},"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":[]},{"id":4361,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/04\/mapping-the-2017-french-presidential-election-first-round\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786024,"position":4},"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":5180,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/10\/guns-and-voters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1786024,"position":5},"title":"Guns and Voters","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 October 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"We've seen a lot of maps correlating election results with other demographic or geographic data, but SurveyMonkey's exit polling on the correlation between politics and gun ownership seems particularly stark, particularly in the context of recent events. In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, nothing predicted who you'd vote for more\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\/10\/surveymonkey-exit-poll-guns-1024x909.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/surveymonkey-exit-poll-guns-1024x909.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/surveymonkey-exit-poll-guns-1024x909.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/surveymonkey-exit-poll-guns-1024x909.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786024","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=1786024"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1786028,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786024\/revisions\/1786028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1786024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1786024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1786024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}