Sunday, November 11, 2012

Red and blue districts: It's is the numbers of voter, not the miles.

The image of the country, showing how each district went in the presidential vote, has been getting passed around.


Some look at the country and see the vast swaths of the country that are red and translate that into the country being almost entirely being red. And that is true if you decide politics and elections by miles taken up, and not by the numbers that vote. The country is very red across much of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, and Missouri. But that area is also not a very large part of the total population. It, like Oklahoma, Kansas, and Montana, are smaller populations compared to other parts of the country. And in those places, at their larger population points, they tend towards being more liberal (Like in Omaha, Nebraska. As seen on the map above.).

It's like in the state of New York. New York City is large population centers. It's massive. The result in New York state is that it holds a great deal of sway. People living in Albany might not like it. But if much of the state's population lives in that city and it's boroughs, then that is were the electorate is.

And if in California, New York, Illinois, and various large cities around the country hold a significant chunk of the nation's population, that is where the electorate is. And if these people are more liberal, that is where the electorate is.

And that's how the maths just work.


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