Governor Races County Map

[cinyc]

Why is it so difficult to gather data on Alaska county results?

Because Alaska and the AP don't break down results by Alaska county equivalents (Alaska technically doesn't have counties).   To make matters worse, only the election day in-precinct vote is broken down by precinct, and the absentee, early and questioned votes, which are only reported by Alaska House District that cross county equivalent lines, often break differently than the election day in-precinct vote.  Allocating those votes is an inexact science, especially in the smaller rural Census Areas that are used as a proxy for counties.  Even some precincts cross county equivalent boundaries, though you usually can allocate them to one county equivalent or the other by assuming most of the voters live near the main named village.

I can make a map of the Alaska election day in-precinct vote.  I tend to use yellow to represent independent candidates, though, since it's difficult to differentiate between green and blue at lower levels of support in the Atlas color scheme.

[cinyc]

Note that this is of the election day in-precinct vote only.  Absentees, early and questioned votes were not allocated to the county equivalents.  Those votes are not all in yet, and allocating them to county equivalents is an inexact science.

[cinyc]

Parnell lost Anchorage and Fairbanks-North Star Borough? Wow. How close were they?

Walker won the election day in-precinct vote in the Municipality of Anchorage 48.5%-46.3%.  That doesn't surprise me because Anchorage is usually the bellwether for Alaska.  Whoever wins the state usually wins the city.

Walker won the election day in-precinct vote in Fairbanks North Star Borough 49.2%-45.6%.  Walker was born there, but spent most of his political career in Valdez, which is why you see the Valdez-Cordova Census Area flipped from its normal Republican roots.

Thanks cinyc for that great Alaska map.

Btw, there are really people living and voting in/on the North Slope?

Yes.  The majority of voters live in two Barrow precincts, Barrow and Browerville.  The Anaktuvuk Pass precinct has a relatively high population, but I think that's because the oil hub of Deadhorse/Prudhoe Bay is within its borders and some workers were classified by the 2010 Census as living there, even though almost all actually live and are registered to vote someplace else.  There's a Prudhoe Bay absentee voting location that stacks ballots from all 40 of Alaska's House Districts to facilitate voting from the workers, who usually work long shifts two weeks at a time.

I can post an Alaska precinct-level map like I did for the Senate race if anyone is interested.

Note: Edited to reflect an overcount in the write-in vote on my spreadsheet.  I don't think it changed much - perhaps Parnell going over the 50% threshold in Petersburg - but a revised map will be put up later.

[cinyc]

I can post an Alaska precinct-level map like I did for the Senate race if anyone is interested.

Yes, please. I would do it if you don't want to.

Okay.  I'll put it in a separate post so we can more easily find it later. 

Once I have the data in some comprehensible form and the shapefiles, it's not that hard to make maps.  It's not like I individually color the precincts.  MapWindow GIS does that for me.