Washington 2008 President by Precinct

[Dave Leip]

Hi,
I know this is Alcon's favorite subject, but when I ran across all of the Washington State Precinct Shapefiles in one place, I couldn't help myself.  Below is the 2008 General Election for President for the entire state of Washington by precinct: (note: open in new window to see full-size)



Here is the zoom of Puget Sound



There are some differences between the precincts in the 2008 data and the shapefiles - perhaps some changes since 2008?  Alcon, do you have 2008 shapefiles specific to 2008 (Snohomish, King, Clark, Pierce)?

Note, I've also added a bunch of the individual county maps to the Atlas Washington pages.

Enjoy,
Dave

[realisticidealist]

Awesome! Thank you for putting it on the Atlas page too. It always saddens me when your amazing maps don't make it to the main site.

[Verily]

Cool!

Anyone know why the northern end of Island County is so Republican? I know the ultra-Republican patch of Whatcom is due to the evangelical colony in Lynden; is it the same sort of thing around Oak Harbor?

[bgwah]

Pretty. I would go and appreciate the county pages if someone would renew my membership!

Cool!

Anyone know why the northern end of Island County is so Republican? I know the ultra-Republican patch of Whatcom is due to the evangelical colony in Lynden; is it the same sort of thing around Oak Harbor?

There's a military base in Oak Harbor. And yeah, Lynden is a Dutch Calvinist enclave a la Sioux County, IA.

[Grad Students are the Worst]

Sweeeet!  There's definitely an elections geek at the SoS's office who has kicked their data collection into high gear.  They have some amazing stuff, although alas no shapefiles for 2009 yet.

I can probably get correct 2008 shapefiles for most counties.  I can see you definitely need Clark, King and Snohomish; and San Juan, which appears to be missing.  How off is Pierce?  We have some voter privacy suppression but everything else looks all right.  Any other needed counties?

I also can probably hook you up with a water shapefile that makes Mason look less screwy.

[Grad Students are the Worst]

Here is a modified version of the state map with half-assed explanations:



I focused on urban areas and unusual Democratic areas -- most of the unlabeled areas are rural and Republican and not especially distinct, although there are some differences.  When I get to it I'll improve them and make a Puget Sound version.

Not exactly professional, but it's a good learner's guide for the morbidly curious.

[Sibboleth]

[platypeanArchcow]

where you wrote "loggers", add "Twilight tourism" -- I was stuck in Forks for several hours because I missed a bus, and it was full of women who looked exactly like this and signs like "BLAH HOTEL - TWILIGHT ROOMS."  This may explain why Forks doesn't vote like Port Angeles or even Sequim.  Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

[Verily]

I like the description of western Jefferson County

And I have to guess that Twilight is too recent to have impacted Forks's politics much yet (especially two years ago).

[Grad Students are the Worst]

where you wrote "loggers", add "Twilight tourism" -- I was stuck in Forks for several hours because I missed a bus, and it was full of women who looked exactly like this and signs like "BLAH HOTEL - TWILIGHT ROOMS."  This may explain why Forks doesn't vote like Port Angeles or even Sequim.  Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

Haha.  Well, Forks's Republicanness dates way pre-Twilight, but it did have a big 2008 swing.  I'm sure tourism isn't making it any more Republican, although I really doubt that's having any real effect.  It's probably just mostly local opportunists making use of the money, not even any service industry moving there.  I mean, even a few Twilight folks moving in -- assuming they have a more Democratic tilt than the town as a whole -- is not going to make a massive difference in a town of 3,300.

[Sibboleth]

Haha. For a moment there, I thought 'twilight tourism' meant people going to see what woods look in the evening, rather than something related to that disturbing thing that some people are disturbingly obsessed with.

[Vasall des Midas]

...while I thought he just meant elderly tourists.

Great maps btw.

[Dave Leip]

Sweeeet!  There's definitely an elections geek at the SoS's office who has kicked their data collection into high gear.  They have some amazing stuff, although alas no shapefiles for 2009 yet.

I can probably get correct 2008 shapefiles for most counties.  I can see you definitely need Clark, King and Snohomish; and San Juan, which appears to be missing.  How off is Pierce?  We have some voter privacy suppression but everything else looks all right.  Any other needed counties?

I also can probably hook you up with a water shapefile that makes Mason look less screwy.

Great - possibly Benton and Skamania - most counties were "perfect" - at least the precincts lined up with the descriptions in the files.  Pierce isn't too bad - not sure how many changed boundaries.  San Juan shape file is awful though... all the water is included.  Pacific and Skagit are also that way, but I purged the water with the county shapes in the image. 

[Husker]

Very cool!

[Lephead]

My assumption of northern Island county being Republican is based on the naval base at Oak Harbor.  And when one part of a county is one party, another part of a county will often start leaning toward the other party.  Coupeville, the county seat has always been Democratic.

[Grad Students are the Worst]

Sweeeet!  There's definitely an elections geek at the SoS's office who has kicked their data collection into high gear.  They have some amazing stuff, although alas no shapefiles for 2009 yet.

I can probably get correct 2008 shapefiles for most counties.  I can see you definitely need Clark, King and Snohomish; and San Juan, which appears to be missing.  How off is Pierce?  We have some voter privacy suppression but everything else looks all right.  Any other needed counties?

I also can probably hook you up with a water shapefile that makes Mason look less screwy.

Great - possibly Benton and Skamania - most counties were "perfect" - at least the precincts lined up with the descriptions in the files.  Pierce isn't too bad - not sure how many changed boundaries.  San Juan shape file is awful though... all the water is included.  Pacific and Skagit are also that way, but I purged the water with the county shapes in the image. 

Ah, yeah, I hate that.

So, we need water-friendly versions of Mason and San Juan; and updated versions of Benton, Clark, King, Pierce and Snohomish.  Skamania should be fine.  They haven't reprecincted since the beginning of time; they just have several precincts that are unpopulated Pinchot National Forest land.  Only thing there there is that the unshaded low-county precinct (Wind Mountain South) should actually be D>50 like the one above it (Wind Mountain North), which should be NVC.

[Dave Leip]

Thanks Alcon - interesting - that makes more sense - the shape file seems to have precincts 306 and 307 backwards.

Dave

[Dave Leip]

Here is another version (corrected Skamania), but also with "place" shapes overlaid.

Enjoy,
Dave

[So the Heroes Fall]

Interestingly Stephenie Meyer had never been to Forks before writing the first book. She simply Googled up an area that was very overcast and rainy, so you know, good for vampires. Not surprising then that her description of it isn't anywhere near reality, even climate-wise. Of course once she did visit it, she said it was so much like her description she "expected to see Bella and Edward around any corner". LOL.

[realisticidealist]

Dave, any chance for 2008 presidential primary maps by precinct?

[Grad Students are the Worst]

Dave, any chance for 2008 presidential primary maps by precinct?

There are some precinct changes, but those uploaded maps actually may in some cases be the 2008 primary maps...I have the file for whenever you need it.  It may even be on the state web site by now; it's down and I can't check.

[Vasall des Midas]

What's with the Republican precincts in southwestern Pacific County? Those look oddish.