OTL Election maps resources thread

Thande

Thande

Donor
Nobody forgets Delaware on my watch! Very swingy place, it seems. Also note a weird example of "FDR's coattails" in the 30s and early 40s, where Democrats always win in presidential years and Republicans in off years, so the seat changes hands with every election...

Delaware.png
 

Hominid

Thande said:
Nobody forgets Delaware on my watch! Very swingy place, it seems. Also note a weird example of "FDR's coattails" in the 30s and early 40s, where Democrats always win in presidential years and Republicans in off years, so the seat changes hands with every election...
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Interesting, because currently it's one of the bluest states in the US.
 
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Donor
Hominid said:
Interesting, because currently it's one of the bluest states in the US.
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Only on a presidential level, and as shown above (see North Dakota) that can be totally decoupled from House (or Senate) voting record.

The impression I get with US House and Senate is that incumbency often means a lot more than party, I think because seniority makes a real difference under the US political system, so a significant number of people would rather have a bigger voice for their state by keeping their senator/representative with high seniority rather than have to start again with a new person, even if their sitting guy is from the other party to the one they prefer. You see seats swinging far more than they would in other countries, like an over 20-point swing in one cycle, just because the old guy has retired and so everyone has 'reset' their voting preferences to more like what they're now voting on presidential level. Or at least that's my reading of it.
 
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You might think Idaho is easy because it only has 2 congressional districts, but they have this annoying habit of redrawing the bit of the line that goes through Boise VERY SLIGHTLY with every redistricting that makes it hard to keep track of...

Idaho.png
 

mowque

Banned
Nebraska is the most red one, I think so far.

Edit: What happened tot hat urban district in Kansas! Bright blue then bam, red. Someone must have died/retired.
 
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Thande

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mowque said:
Nebraska is the most red one, I think so far.

Edit: What happened tot hat urban district in Kansas! Bright blue then bam, red. Someone must have died/retired.
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Yeah, Dennis Moore apparently. That plus the Republican wave year of 2010...
 
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Thande

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mowque said:
Wild to see a solid district go from one side to another, unopposed(?!) in 4 years.
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I think the Democrats gave up too easily there. Maybe they couldn't find any candidates. (It was contested by a Libertarian in 2012, who managed to get an impressive 31.5%, so it shows you that there was still a significant anti-Republican vote there to be tapped).

New Hampshire now. The first congressional district (the one on the right) is supposed to be officially the most evenly balanced in America, with nobody winning more than 55% of the vote there for quite a while.

12 states down, 38 to go...

New Hampshire.png
 
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Thande

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Tim Thomason said:
Good luck with California.
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Don't remind me :p Though New York and Illinois are nearly as bad because of the big cities.

It's not really that there are lots of districts, it's finding out which one is which and finding good zoomed-in maps for insets. OK for the past 30 years or so, but beyond that...
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
...so for now I'll stick to easier ones like South Dakota.

I notice that both Dakotas went very Democratic during Ronald Reagan's time in office; were his economic policies bad for their industries/agricultural interests or something?

South Dakota.png
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
New Mexico seems to have had an unusual number of uncontested elections for a non-southern state. Also, approximately half of all its politicians have the surname Lujan and they don't even seem to all be part of the same political family...

New Mexico.png
 
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