1972-2012 Presidential County Results by Margin by Year (Animated GIF)

[Adam Griffin]

I'm working on a major project at the moment: animating modern presidential election results by county (by margin) into a GIF. Currently, each frame is one year and one second = four years.

The change in margin between two presidential elections is averaged out and split across three additional frames (years in between the two elections) to create an animated effect. So for instance, a county that was +12 Dem in 2004 and +24 Dem in 2008 would be +15 Dem in 2005; +18 in 2006; +21 in 2007.

Thus far, I have completed 1972-2012. I've already went way past my initial goal but I may continue going back even further.

1972 to 2012

Full-size image

View Half-Speed Version (2 Years/Second)

View Double-Speed Version (8 Years/Second)

[Adam Griffin]

I love how inelastic that one Republican county in Maine is lol. Anyway, great work, thanks.

New Hampshire transplants!?!

My personal favorite is the Democratic wave/impulse of the Midwest radiating outward across the entire region from 2004-2008 (and then in reverse from 2009-2012).


Added 2000 to the GIF, so it now covers from 2000-2012.

[Adam Griffin]

Could you display the years in the gif?   That'd be helpful.

Also - Wow,  Maricopa hardly changes at all....so much for a Dem trend in AZ....

Done.


Also, there were a few issues with the previous GIF that have now been corrected:

• 2010 frame was showing twice and the 2011 frame was missing; fixed
• Jefferson County, NY was way off on its 2000 result; fixed
• Fusion Tables was ignoring my two lightest shades of blue/red and rendering them as white; fixed

[Adam Griffin]

Something looks wrong with Greene, NY.

Yeah, good catch. It looks like a discrepancy between "King County"/"Brooklyn" threw off everything from Brooklyn - Jefferson. I've fixed it in the data but I'm not going to correct the GIF yet, since it takes a while to recreate it.

[Adam Griffin]

1996 has now been added. Despite the fact that I was confident that I fixed New York, it appears I overlooked another problem; for now, ignore Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Schuyler, Seneca and Richmond/Staten Island (<--- the origin of the problem) from 1996-2004. I could have sworn I checked all the boroughs...

[Adam Griffin]

1992 has now been added.

[Adam Griffin]

1988 has been added.

[Adam Griffin]

Could you add HI and AK as well, since they're states as well? I am really curious about AK in particular.

AK is practically impossible (for me, anyway) due to the way votes are recorded versus how shapefile boundaries are molded; the jurisdictions are different. This is part of the reason why even Dave Leip doesn't have maps for AK.

HI is actually in my data but I haven't yet bothered adding it because I'll have to take a separate screenshot for it, paste it into each existing frame and ensure it's exactly lined up in each one with one another.

[Adam Griffin]

One thing I'm going to have to fix: apparently the total file size of my GIF is getting too big for the GIF service I'm using. It seems to have scaled down the size involuntarily by about half. I'm definitely going to need to find a workaround for that. It's fine for displaying it in a forum post, but I like to have a full-sized image that's approximately an entire screen's worth in terms of average desktop resolution.

[Adam Griffin]

1984 has now been added. I also corrected a glitch in the previous GIF (1988-1991) in which MO's numbers were incorrect.

[Adam Griffin]

Annnnd 1980.

[Adam Griffin]

1972 and 1976 have been added. This is in all likelihood the end of the road.

I've also added half-speed and double-speed variations of the GIF.