The Atlas is partnering with UUorld (pronounced “World”) GIS software developer to provide election data in formats capable of being imported to the UUorld application. A link has been added to your myatlas page to the UUorld Export Script. All data sets purchased from the Atlas are available to you for export.

The application’s primary feature is the ability to extrude shapes in a three dimensional projection providing a geographic visual representation of relative data. 2-D mapping options are also available. One particular feature is the ability to produce animated time-series movies such the percent vote for Democratic Party Presidential candidates for the general elections between 1980 and 2004 (shown in this post). See some more examples of the Atlas data here. More data export options will be developed in the coming months. User feedback welcome.

*Update* UUorld is offering a $50 Rebate on the commercial version of UUorld with a receipt for an Atlas data purchase.

The 2008 Election Night Timeline is now available. Included are a national color-coded map of poll closing times and a table of the timeline for closing/call times for each state. Follow along on Election night as the states are called!

The Atlas feature to create user endorsements for 2008 Senatorial and Gubernatorial contests are now available. Endorse the candidates you support!

The Mock 2008 Presidential Election is now available. This year’s contest includes a feature that allows visitors to treat their vote as an endorsement. With this option selected, a small banner appears below the state avatar in Forum Posts. Click on over and cast your ballot!

I have created a new method for posting election results in Blogs - an interactive election map “widget” - a small snipet that can be placed in the code section of a blog post. The map has mouse-over interactivity, including a county-level imagemap with the floating text box of results plus links to more detailed returns. Below is an example comparing the 2004 General Election Result in South Carolina to the 2008 Republican Primary in South Carolina.

The link for this code may be seen by clicking on the link titled “Blog Interactive Map Widget Code for this Contest” in the “Election Tools” section of any state (or national) summary page. The code can then be placed in an uselectionatlas.org weblog post (note in order to use this widget, you need to enable the pageview plugin on the “Plugins” tab in the admin section of you weblog. At this time, this widget can’t be used on other weblogs since iframes are generally not permitted using most blogging software.

The Primary Predictions for the GOP and Democratic nomination contests have been up for a few weeks. Although these features greatly simplify the (very complex) process, they provide an interesting excercise in running scenarios in the present dynamic environment. The prediction for the state of Iowa is closing at noon (EST) on January 3 - so, if you want to get complete primary predictions in, be sure to do prior to that time. Predictions for contests held in other states will close at noon (Eastern) of the day in which the respective election or caucus is held.

The Atlas Weblog system has been upgraded to Wordpress Mu - a scaleable blogging system for multiple users. Please send me a note if you have an interest in publishing your own free weblog on this site. The system also includes custom pages and will support your own weblog ads, if desired.

Prediction scripts are now available for the 2008 Senate Election and the 2008 Gubernatorial contests (joining the already-available 2008 Presidential Predictions. The 2006 Senate aggregate prediction called 32 of 33 contests correctly - only missing Virginia. The 2006 Gubernatorial aggregate prediction called 35 of 36 contests correctly - only missing in Minnesota. Give a try at election prognostication! (more…)

With all the clamoring amongst the states to move primary contests to the front of the line, the Atlas has decided to leapfrog them all, unveiling today the 2008 Presidential Primary Mock Election contests: the 2008 Republican Mock Election and 2008 Democratic Mock Election. The Atlas Mock Elections in each state are set up as open primaries (meaning that any registered voter of any party affiliation may cast a ballot in either the Democratic or Republican primary). In the real primary and caucus system, each state sets the rules for participation:

• Open primaries allow voters of any party affiliation to vote
• Modified open primaries allow independent or unaffiliated voters as well as those affiliated with the party holding the election contest
• Closed primaries limit the participants to those registered with the party holding the election contest

The allocation of delegates for the Atlas Mock Primaries are modeled after the rules for each state - typically awarding delegates proportional to the popular vote in a given state or via winner-take-all (the same system as 48 states and the District of Columbia use in the general election to award Presidential Electors). In the real primary system, a certain set of delegates are allocated via the vote in congressional districts - this level of detail has been omitted on the Atlas mock election - where all the district delegates are awarded as part of the “at large” group. Overall, the primary process is quite complex.

Go now and cast your ballot!

Several members of the Atlas community have suggested providing a feature for members to share their endorsements of candidates for the 2006 Senatorial and Gubernatorial contests. This feature has now been added to the Atlas (Links: Gubernatorial Endorsements and Senatorial Endorsements). A compiled map on the endorsements home page shows the aggregate of community endorsements. The new scripts include pages to show state-by-state listing of endorsement totals for each candidate.