Upstate: downstate?
The map above (from the Washington Post by Nate Kelso, NACIS member) shows how Virginians voted in the Senate election on Tuesday.
The CW on Virginia is that it is split, upstate/downstate, but the map, while not denying that, does add in a few extra things worth noting.
1. You can find solid Dem districts downstate and solid GOP districts upstate.
2. According to the statistic provided by the WaPo, just 16% of voters in N. Va. are in exurbs, while 84% are in urban or suburban districts. The exurbs have recently been touted as a rapidly rising and largely Dem group. But what is the split between suburban--exurban?
3. To avoid larger, but less populated precincts from overwhelming the viewer visually, Nate uses a colored circle.
4. Norfolk, site I believe of a large military base, voted for Webb (D).
5. Plenty of places which aren't exactly rural (eg Fauquier County) still voted for Allen. It would be interesting to overlay this on a population density map.
2 comments:
Fauquier isn't rural? What are all those farms doing there? :P
I'd like to see the following graphic: Population density vs. Percent that voted for Webb (preferably done by voting precinct). I think that would give a better idea of the rural vs. urban vote split than the simplified red vs. blue maps that everyone seems to love.
Ok, ok, it's rural, but not rural rural!
I may make the map you mention just to check anyway.
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