Communications of the ACM
Stanford Election Atlas Maps Votes, Polling Place By Polling Place
A zoom-capable online atlas explores correlations between income, race, and voting behavior across the United States.
Credit: ArcGIS Stanford Map
Researchers at Stanford and Harvard universities have developed the Stanford Election Atlas, an online interactive data visualization tool that enables users to inspect the precinct-by-precinct results of the 2008 presidential election. The system includes a zoomable online atlas that explores correlations between income, race, and voting behavior across the United States. A customizable version also enables users to combine the election data with other maps, including topographical and satellite images. "Now you can look at a place like Brooklyn and see, from voting patterns, where you cross from an African-American neighborhood to an Irish one," says Stanford professor Jonathan Rodden.
The map also clarifies some long-standing geographic divisions in American politics. "You can see blue veins running through primarily red states, tracing out early 20th-century railroads," Rodden says. Other battleground precincts can be seen by zooming in on states and looking for dots outlined in white, which represent polling places where a candidate garnered less than 55 percent of the vote.
From Stanford University
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Abstracts Copyright © 2012 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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