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?

The files for the 2003 California Recall are now available. You may access them through the link below the “Special Features” heading on the home page. I plan to have the preliminary unofficial results posted early Wednesday morning. I won’t be a “real-time” source of data… but will have nice graphs and maps. Please feel free to comment on the implementation… I still have a little time to make modifications.

I have added the results of the 1999 Gubernatorial Elections. Only three states (KY, LA, and MS) hold their election for Governor in this off year. These offices are up for re-election in November. Results of the 2003 Gubernatorial races will be added to the site in the fall/winter.

Thanks to Dave (a different Dave) for pointing out the malfunctioning Bellwether page. I, from time to time, update the site and miss one of the links. Reporting site bugs is always appreciated. Also fixed 1984 mouse-over functionality.