File talk:2008 General Election Results by County.PNG

Numbers?

how many total counties did each candidate win?Tallicfan20 (talk) 00:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Criticism

Something's odd here. There's too much red for an Obama victory. Is it possible the colors are reversed (Blue-Republican)? dachshund2k3 (talk) 02:23, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

It's showing so much red because it's by county, not district. County delineations aren't based on population. So although McCain won more geographic area, the more densely populated areas went for Obama. 70.185.102.172 (talk) 03:18, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

This map gives very little information about the election. For a detailed geographical display of the election results, it would be better to at least colour code the margin between the two candidates. Can someone provide such a map?--84.163.113.208 (talk) 04:38, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Such a map would be too complicated to even be relevent. The popular vote is the only way this type of map is ever displayed, and is used widely by networks like CNN to show the parts of the country that went either for the GOP or Democratic. Jason (talk) 05:45, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Since it is irrelevant who had the majority in which county (thats the information the current map gives), a map like [[1]] would give at least some information about the regional distribution of the popular vote (not relevant either, but more informative...). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.163.70.161 (talk) 14:57, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Oh is there something wrong with Florida? Obama wins at Florida but there are more red then blue counties there. --Fa2f (talk) 09:14, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

No. Jason (talk) 22:11, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

It's not who wins the most counties, it's who gets the most votes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.84.179.59 (talk) 01:16, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Those of you who are questioning the map must not be Americans. A lot of the Red counties are rural areas, while the Blue counties tend to be more urban. There are exceptions of course. It looks like Obama did really well in rural parts of the Upper Midwest and the Northeast. --Tocino 19:27, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

County Fixes

I see two counties that need fixing. Staten Island in NY went for McCain, and Fayette County, not Mercer County, went for McCain in north-central Kentucky.Masebrock (talk) 23:27, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Another incorrectly listed county: Midland County, Michigan. It went for McCain 51/47. http://www.co.midland.mi.us/election/08gen/summary.htm (Midnightcoffee (talk) 12:27, 7 November 2008 (UTC))

Two others counties are incorrect: Henrico County, Virginia and Richmond City, Virginia both show a McCain win, however they both went for Obama. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.235.119.253 (talk) 08:45, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Sarasota County, Florida shows a McCain win, but it went for Obama. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.247.244.203 (talk) 20:11, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Sarasota went McCain with 49.6% to 49.5% for Obama. Jason (talk) 22:18, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Can somebody change Jackson County, Oregon (Medford) from blue to red? It went for McCain by 142 votes. (Absolutadam802 (talk) 02:35, 10 November 2008 (UTC))

According to CNN (11/30/08), Fresno County (CA) went to Obama by about 1000 votes.

According to the official Oregon elections division at oregonvotes.org, Jackson County went for Obama by 47 votes. Can somebody please change it back to blue? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.220.222.221 (talk) 05:35, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Garfield County, Colorado

According to a .xls file released on their official site, Garfield county is a purple county with both candidates each receiving exactly 11,223 votes. I have no idea how to change this so I'm posting this here. Spitfire8520 (talk) 02:44, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

new york

albany, madison and otsego are for obama —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.57.148.109 (talk) 19:02, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

mississipi

marshall is for obama —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.6.222.48 (talk) 20:44, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

ohio

jefferson is for obama--87.6.212.250 (talk) 11:22, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

virginia

chesapeake is for obama and pulaski for mccain--87.6.212.250 (talk) 11:41, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

now i've ended my watch some can correct the map or explain my error, thank --87.6.212.250 (talk) 14:57, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

source: http://www.albanycounty.com/electionresults/_pdf/20081104_General.pdf

http://www.otsegocounty.com/depts/boe/results.htm

https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/election/DATA/2008/07261AFC-9ED3-410F-B07D-84D014AB2C6B/Unofficial/00_550_s.shtml

https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/election/DATA/2008/07261AFC-9ED3-410F-B07D-84D014AB2C6B/Unofficial/00_155_s.shtml

for marshall and jefferson cnn and dave leip pages —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.57.148.74 (talk) 13:36, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Update needed: Utah

Per http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11017228, Obama has won Salt Lake County, Utah. Qqqqqq (talk) 22:43, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Was just about to say this. And I wonder if there's any others that changed after provisional ballots were counted that we don't know about. bob rulz (talk) 00:17, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Purple Counties

Two counties are purple. From reading this page, I'm guessing they're both ties. Shouldn't the map say so? —MiguelMunoz (talk) 06:33, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Update for Maryland

Please change Kent County, Maryland from red to blue. As per the New York times: http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html. Absolutadam802 (talk) 07:47, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Shades of blue/red?

This maybe OR, but this is something that would be interesting. Have light blue/red counties for close races, medium shade for +60% and dark shade for +70% victories for each county. Is there anywhere that does that? In the interest of Political Science at least if my interest isn't that important :) MrMurph101 (talk) 23:02, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Great idea, and I'd be willing to help with this. The color spectrum used for several U.S. House delegation maps (such as File:110th US Congress House of Reps Current.png) would work well for this purpose. I don't think it would be original research; the data is easily obtained from cnn.com Qqqqqq (talk) 23:11, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, however that will be a lot of counties to get stats for! It will still be interesting though. MrMurph101 (talk) 23:19, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3460/08aml4.gif is a great place to begin, although I cannot verify its reliability. --haha169 (talk) 03:56, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Here's one we can start with. It's adapted from a printscreen of the county results map on the New York Times website. - http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/5410/countyresultsyv9.jpg I know it's bad quality, but that's all you get from a screenshot. Timmeh! 21:01, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Where is Alaska's borough information found?

Just curious. No news outlets seem to recognize the existence of counties/boroughs in Alaska, which is annoying. And I can't find such data on the state's elections division website. Äþelwulf Talk to me. 20:54, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Seconding this question, with the aim of creating a table at United States presidential election in Alaska, 2008. Any help would be much appreciated. — Hysteria18 (Talk • Contributions) 16:21, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment and the Ties

Thanks for the map. It's great. I can see that some people are confused by it as it shows (to some people) that Obama didn't win a majority but remember that this map is divided into COUNTIES and counties can have only a few thousand people in them (in rural areas) or hundreds of thousands of people (in cities). The USA is a huge country but much of it is very sparsely populated and those in such rural areas tend to vote for the Republicans. Look at the big cities on this may (New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Houston, LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, DC, etc.) and you'll see just how successful Obama was. Those criticising the usefulness of this map should be aware that there are many other analytical maps available for this election including some great ones showing the USA contorted to take into account populations and other more general maps.

One other thing. The legend to the map has 'blue' for Obama, 'red' for McCain and 'violet' for tie. Maybe it's my eyesight but I can't find any tie counties. Are there any and if so can someone tell me where they are (just the name of the state would be enough). Maybe a different colour for ties would work (I have no idea) but to me it's hard to spot the violet in a sea of red and purple.--Xania ^talk 22:22, 24 April 2009 (UTC)