I have received many questions with regard to my updating the Democratic primary results. The plan is to add these results to the site (county, congressional district maps and data) as they are officially canvassed by the official state agencies responsible for tabulating election data (my schedule permitting, of course). The canvassing process typically takes several weeks. This methodology provides for accurate results and requires only a single update per state. I plan to add results for all primaries prior to and including Super Tuesday this weekend.

Check out the new homepage! In addition, I have enabled the new site membership feature. I have been working this last year on creating a very detailed, versatile, database-driven site to provide even more information with greater flexibility. See the members information page for details on exactly what new data and features are available. I am asking for financial help to cover the increasing cost of bandwidth usage (some of the new features significantly increase bandwidth requirements when viewing site pages). The financial help is in the form of membership dues in exchange for access to these features. Alternatively, if you don’t want to pay, there is also the option to become a contributing member - where access is granted in exchange for donating (in some form such as data or code) to the site. Note that I am not removing any of the currently-available features. These will remain freely accessible to everyone. Enjoy!

I have performed a major site update today. Most of the old html files have been replaced by a database-driven set of scripts. Overall, this provides a signficant enhancement to the content, allowing for greater viewing choices and more flexibility (see, for example, the ability to sort state-level data according to margin of victory, vote percentages, etc.). Additional features also appear - such as home state maps. Also note that some of the vote totals have changed slightly. This is due to continuing research and adjustments to individual state and/or county totals. Such changes entered into the database now cascade through the entire site seamlessly (as opposed to the old method of updating every individual html page in which that piece of data was incorporated). If you discover any problems (broken links, strange appearance, etc.) please consider entering a bug in the new bug tracking database.

The 2004 Democratic Primary and Caucus results infrastructure pages are now available (from the “Primary” pull-down menu in the Election Results section). These will be updated as the campaign progresses (generally the day after the results are available).

I have rebuilt the Election 2004 user predictions scripts. The process is now entirely web-based and requires signficantly less effort than the first version. The software now calculates electoral votes automatically and - most importantly, the scripts generate the user maps.(no more headaches calculating electoral vote totals, trying not to fill the EV labels with the paint bucket, or frustrating yourself with the upload problems). I have also added a “most-recent” link in order to view the most recent predictions and will soon add a search feature as well as other ways to view the submissions. Please let me know if you run across any bugs or have further suggestions.

I’ve completed some more refinements on the Electoral College Calculator (found in the 2004 section). Map polygons are significanlty refined. Also added image-mapping and mouse-over descriptions text box (clicking on a state brings up the results of the 2000 election in that state). Work has also begun on integrating this feature into the user prediction section and it will likely be available in the coming days. Please feel free to forward more comments and suggestions.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in today as the new Governor of California. The recall election results in the Gubernatorial Section of the web site have been updated per the certified results from the California Secretary of State (the official Statement of Vote 2003 Statewide Special Election October 7, 2003). The official statement has over 1.4 million more votes than were included in the preliminary results (about 16% of the overall vote total). Interestingly, the overall percentages did not change much at all. Schwarzenegger gained about 0.8 of a percentage point overall and his decade result changed in only one county, San Bernardino, from > 50% to > 60%. Bustamante dropped about one percentage point and his decade result changed in only one county, Santa Clara, falling from > 40% to > 30%. McClintock picked up about 0.3 of a percentage point. Results for other candidates are about the same.

I have disabled the ability to create new threads in the old forum pages. Please start all new discussions in the new forum environment. Thanks.

I have installed a new forum based on the php/mysql open-source implemenation YABB SE. This will be a little painful, as you will need to reregister to use the new forum. Also, I don’t yet know of a way to import the old threads and posts.

There are a number of reasons for upgrading:
- more features!
- better reliability (old forum has a bug that “loses” threads)
- easier to remove problem posters
- hopefully faster!
- Party/Home State Avatars! (will be uploaded soon).

I encourage you to migrate to the new forum soon because I will begin locking threads in the old forum. I will keep it around only as an archive. Please feel free (as always) to provide feedback and comment on the new implementation.

I just discovered a small error in the Maine county map boundaries for the elections 1980 - 2000. It turns out that the town of Otisfield seceded from Cumberland County in 1978 and joined Oxford County. I have now refelected this border change in the appropriate maps.

It appears to be a very rare occurance for towns to switch counties. I don’t know of another example for New England towns in the 20th Century. In 1890, New Shoreham, RI (Block Island) changed from Newport to Washington County. Anyone know of other examples?