OTL Election maps resources thread
- Thread starter Thande
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Just to confirm - in state elections in Germany, are the list seats always at large?
Gust
Donor
Cool to see one of my maps being posted. The version you is actually slightly wrong; two districts were won by a slightly larger margins and a levelling seat was moved from the SPD to the Greens. That has been fixed now.
No. Not in all states. Bavaria use separate elections in each government district, Berlin allows parties to allocate their list seats across the city buroughs, Baden-Wüttemburg uses a best-loser system in each government district, and Bremen has separate elections in Bremen and Bremerhaven.
So on Tuesday, Kansas held a proposition on the 'Value Them Both Amendment', which was effectively intended to make the state constitution state there is no right to an abortion or public funding for them. It was defeated by 58.9% to 41.1%.
The wording of the ballot has provoked strong criticism for allegedly being worded by the Republican state legislature to obscure its intentions. Whatever your opinion on the subject of the referendum, I feel we can at least agree the word salad they came up with is pretty terrible:
To get back to psephology, the really noticeable thing is the intense opposition in the big cities and college towns, which ripples out somewhat to the counties around them and the strong support in rural areas, especially out west; for the most part, the less populous the county the more it voted Yes by. Amusingly, the county west of Wichita that came closest to voting No is Seward County, home to the city of Liberal. (Though the actual reason it almost voted No is probably just that that's a college town.)
The wording of the ballot has provoked strong criticism for allegedly being worded by the Republican state legislature to obscure its intentions. Whatever your opinion on the subject of the referendum, I feel we can at least agree the word salad they came up with is pretty terrible:
Insert joke about pronouns being confusing here.
To get back to psephology, the really noticeable thing is the intense opposition in the big cities and college towns, which ripples out somewhat to the counties around them and the strong support in rural areas, especially out west; for the most part, the less populous the county the more it voted Yes by. Amusingly, the county west of Wichita that came closest to voting No is Seward County, home to the city of Liberal. (Though the actual reason it almost voted No is probably just that that's a college town.)
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I've been working on compiling the results for this for quite a while, but behold: the final GLC election!
For anyone who doesn't know the context, the GLC (Greater London Council) was the predecessor to the modern-day devolved government of Greater London, established in 1965 to govern the new county. Unlike the modern GLA (Greater London Authority), though, the GLC was functionally closer to a second tier of local government rather than a devolved assembly, as the boroughs and central government had more power to clash with it if they pleased (which Bromley did to torpedo a policy that would subsidise transport fares at the cost of the richer boroughs).
As for the 1981 election, it's fairly well-known by local government standards, but in summary, Labour narrowly defeated the ardently pro-Thatcher Tory administration controlling the country, but local party leader Andrew McIntosh was deposed by the newly-elected membership in favour of the more left-wing Ken Livingstone. After Livingstone's administration started to actively oppose Thatcher's policies, such as through showing posters counting the rising unemployment figures and the aforementioned attempt to subsidise transport fares, Thatcher's government pushed for and ultimately passed a law abolishing the GLC.
While its abolition came at the same time as the other metropolitan county councils, the GLC's abolition was the most obviously politically motivated and the one that made the locals most despondent- there's a bit in Things Can Only Get Better where John O'Farrell recounts desperately trying to convince someone to vote in a by-election for it despite having to admit it was being abolished. It's therefore unsurprising that it was also the only one to be reinstated in any form.
The thing I find interesting about mapping this is both the familiar names that crop up occasionally- Paul Boateng in Walthamstow or John McDonnell in Hayes & Harlington, for example- and the fact it's a time capsule of lots of oddities of historical London politics, like Lambeth being more Tory than Wandsworth, the Liberals being surprisingly strong opposition to Labour in parts of Tower Hamlets (which was allegedly a factor in the infamous BNP by-election win in Millwall over a decade later) and the way all the seats are contiguous with the boroughs (and the 1974-83 parliamentary constituencies).
For anyone who doesn't know the context, the GLC (Greater London Council) was the predecessor to the modern-day devolved government of Greater London, established in 1965 to govern the new county. Unlike the modern GLA (Greater London Authority), though, the GLC was functionally closer to a second tier of local government rather than a devolved assembly, as the boroughs and central government had more power to clash with it if they pleased (which Bromley did to torpedo a policy that would subsidise transport fares at the cost of the richer boroughs).
As for the 1981 election, it's fairly well-known by local government standards, but in summary, Labour narrowly defeated the ardently pro-Thatcher Tory administration controlling the country, but local party leader Andrew McIntosh was deposed by the newly-elected membership in favour of the more left-wing Ken Livingstone. After Livingstone's administration started to actively oppose Thatcher's policies, such as through showing posters counting the rising unemployment figures and the aforementioned attempt to subsidise transport fares, Thatcher's government pushed for and ultimately passed a law abolishing the GLC.
While its abolition came at the same time as the other metropolitan county councils, the GLC's abolition was the most obviously politically motivated and the one that made the locals most despondent- there's a bit in Things Can Only Get Better where John O'Farrell recounts desperately trying to convince someone to vote in a by-election for it despite having to admit it was being abolished. It's therefore unsurprising that it was also the only one to be reinstated in any form.
The thing I find interesting about mapping this is both the familiar names that crop up occasionally- Paul Boateng in Walthamstow or John McDonnell in Hayes & Harlington, for example- and the fact it's a time capsule of lots of oddities of historical London politics, like Lambeth being more Tory than Wandsworth, the Liberals being surprisingly strong opposition to Labour in parts of Tower Hamlets (which was allegedly a factor in the infamous BNP by-election win in Millwall over a decade later) and the way all the seats are contiguous with the boroughs (and the 1974-83 parliamentary constituencies).
Here's the Brazilian presidential election by state:
In a lot of ways this election really felt like Brazil trying to be America in 2020: the former holder of executive office dogged by allegations of impropriety as a candidate on the left, the far-right nationalist incumbent President who had achieved worldwide infamy and disdain (particularly for his handling of Covid) on the right, the polls incorrectly predicting a landslide victory for the former with them narrowly but undeniably coming out on top, the President's party making unexpected gains in the legislature, the refusal to accept the results by the incumbent and his supporters... if you had a bingo card, odds are you've filled it by now. Here's hoping a storming of Brasilia isn't coming, though.
Noticeably, the results are very regionally polarised as well as very close- compared to Lula's two 60%+ landslides in his first two terms (and the leads the polls had predicted for him) this is quite striking. It also makes a headline I saw someone share from Sensacionalista (which I gather is like the Brazilian equivalent of the Onion or Private Eye?) saying 'Nordeste ganha torneio mundial de Crossfit por carregar o Brasil nas costas' ('Northeast wins CrossFit competition for carrying Brazil on its back') make a lot of sense.
In a lot of ways this election really felt like Brazil trying to be America in 2020: the former holder of executive office dogged by allegations of impropriety as a candidate on the left, the far-right nationalist incumbent President who had achieved worldwide infamy and disdain (particularly for his handling of Covid) on the right, the polls incorrectly predicting a landslide victory for the former with them narrowly but undeniably coming out on top, the President's party making unexpected gains in the legislature, the refusal to accept the results by the incumbent and his supporters... if you had a bingo card, odds are you've filled it by now. Here's hoping a storming of Brasilia isn't coming, though.
Noticeably, the results are very regionally polarised as well as very close- compared to Lula's two 60%+ landslides in his first two terms (and the leads the polls had predicted for him) this is quite striking. It also makes a headline I saw someone share from Sensacionalista (which I gather is like the Brazilian equivalent of the Onion or Private Eye?) saying 'Nordeste ganha torneio mundial de Crossfit por carregar o Brasil nas costas' ('Northeast wins CrossFit competition for carrying Brazil on its back') make a lot of sense.
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The actual word for electoral round here in Brazil is "turno", not "rodada".
Fair enough, sorry for that error I barely know any Portuguese. I'll correct it now.
1912 United States presidential election in Massachusetts, shaded by percent of vote captured by the leading candidate in each town.
This is a pretty good example of "Land doesn't vote," since Woodrow Wilson won the state with 35% of the vote despite winning fewer towns than Roosevelt and Taft (at least using the eyeball test, I haven't actually counted). Wilson leading Taft and Roosevelt by 20,000 votes in the city of Boston, and also leading in other sizable municipalities like Lowell and Lawrence, helped push him over the top. Because of the split Republican vote, this was the first time a Democratic candidate for president ever won Massachusetts.
Another little thing I find interesting about this map is how it represents the Wampanoag populations. Mashpee (on mainland Cape Cod) and Gay Head (now called Aquinnah, on the island of Martha's Vineyard) are both deep Republican red, and both these towns were majority Wampanoag at the time. There are still substantial Wampanoag populations in both towns today, but whites now make up the majority of both towns. Aquinnah (around 35% Wampanoag) is now consistently one of the most Democratic-voting towns in Massachusetts, whereas Mashpee (under 10% Wampanoag) only leans Democratic.
This is a pretty good example of "Land doesn't vote," since Woodrow Wilson won the state with 35% of the vote despite winning fewer towns than Roosevelt and Taft (at least using the eyeball test, I haven't actually counted). Wilson leading Taft and Roosevelt by 20,000 votes in the city of Boston, and also leading in other sizable municipalities like Lowell and Lawrence, helped push him over the top. Because of the split Republican vote, this was the first time a Democratic candidate for president ever won Massachusetts.
Another little thing I find interesting about this map is how it represents the Wampanoag populations. Mashpee (on mainland Cape Cod) and Gay Head (now called Aquinnah, on the island of Martha's Vineyard) are both deep Republican red, and both these towns were majority Wampanoag at the time. There are still substantial Wampanoag populations in both towns today, but whites now make up the majority of both towns. Aquinnah (around 35% Wampanoag) is now consistently one of the most Democratic-voting towns in Massachusetts, whereas Mashpee (under 10% Wampanoag) only leans Democratic.
Last month, the Czech Republic, aka Czechia, aka Czechy McCzechface, held its presidential election. The circumstances proved a little bizarre, even by the standards of Czech politics; with Miloš 'totally not a tankie I swear' Zeman term-limited out, the populist vote turned to former PM Andrej Babiš of the centrist and Eurosceptic ANO, while the more pro-Western and pro-European Spolu alliance governing the country split between three independent nominees- Petr Pavel, Danuše Nerudová and Pavel Fischer. Also, while he barely got any votes, I just want to mention that one candidate, Karel Janeček, tried to mount a campaign in VR using the Metaverse.
While the three Spolu-endorsed candidates were all endorsed by the alliance collectively, they were each considered particularly close to one constituent party- Pavel to the more liberal TOP 09, Fischer to the more conservative ODS and Nerudová to the Christian democratic KDU-ČSL- and campaigned separately, with the intention being to coalesce around whoever got through to the second round. Ultimately that was Pavel, who came just ahead of Babiš, likely thanks to his military career reinforcing his pro-Ukraine stance, his vocal opposition to populism and Zeman, and his popularity within both the Spolu and Pirates and Mayors alliances.
In the second round, Pavel's win was basically a foregone conclusion given how the more liberal parties were united against Babiš and ANO, and though Zeman, the basically irrelevant Communists and the far right did endorse him over Pavel, Pavel still won resoundingly. The campaign was notably dirty on the part of supporters, though, as faked web pages claimed Pavel was dead and fake texts were circulated claiming to be from Pavel telling people they'd be conscripted to fight in Ukraine, while Babiš claimed his wife was sent a bullet in the post and he was sent death threats. One bit of solace to be found is that Babiš did at least concede defeat after the results came in, which is a bit sad to have to say about an election, but still.