Lab 2: Red State, Blue State...

New York Times Original Map:



My Original Map:

NY Times Map Critique:

Overall, the map does an excellent job of illustrating the election results of the 2008 presidential election. The incorporation of flash certainly aids in the representation. Here are three flaws I noticed:

1. When first examining the original New York Times map, several flaws stand out. First of all, in the map key, the blue shade for "win" under the Democrats does not match the blue shade on the actual map. It is more of a turquoise color in the key. This was an obvious oversight by the cartographer.

2. Also, the map could be improved by sticking to more a standard format when labeling the names of the states. Some states are labeled with their full names, others are labeled with three letters, and even others are labeled with just two letters. Further, some states, especially in the northeast have no label whatsoever. I realize though that labeling these states would have made the map incredibly busy.

3. The map would become more useful if the cartographer had chosen to display the number of electoral votes each state receives. He/she excellently displays the popular vote, but the electoral vote is what ultimately decides the election, and if people have not memorized the electoral values of each state, then they could be easily mislead.