2004 Elections Maps

Almost immediately the 2004 election was concluded, there was a proliferation of maps of the United States, color coded into Republican and Democrat supporting states. Conservatives pointed to the swathes of red to trimphantly declare the right's hold on political power. Disappointed lefties have produced 'comparison' maps to graphically demonstrate the similarity of 'red areas' to regions containing stupid and/or evil people.

However the red/blue map has two obvious flaws. First, Democrat and Republican voters are interspersed everywhere such that no state is even close to pure red or blue. Second, the maps emphasize land area over population. Maps from Mark Newman and colleagues at the University of Michigan are instructive - America is really purple.