2399: 2020 Election Map

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 22:54, 16 December 2020 by Jacky720 (talk | contribs) (Weird phrasing?)
Jump to: navigation, search
2020 Election Map
There are more Trump voters in California than Texas, more Biden voters in Texas than New York, more Trump voters in New York than Ohio, more Biden voters in Ohio than Massachusetts, more Trump voters in Massachusetts than Mississippi, and more Biden voters in Mississippi than Vermont.
Title text: There are more Trump voters in California than Texas, more Biden voters in Texas than New York, more Trump voters in New York than Ohio, more Biden voters in Ohio than Massachusetts, more Trump voters in Massachusetts than Mississippi, and more Biden voters in Mississippi than Vermont.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a MAP. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

This is a sequel to the previous comic 1939: 2016 Election Map. In the US, the president is not elected by a direct popular vote but by a group known as the electoral college chosen by the states. Generally, when looking at the election's progress, people use a map colored by how the states voted but this can be misleading as to the popular vote because not all states have the same population. This map shows how misleading it can be by showing not just how states voted but how many people voted in the state.

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.


comment.png add a comment! ⋅ comment.png add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ Icons-mini-action refresh blue.gif refresh comments!

Discussion

r/PeopleLiveInCities162.158.49.18 12:27, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

I see a political comic... sure hope this doesn't spiral out of control. ChessCake (talk) 22:21, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

How dare you accuse me of spiraling things out of control, you so-and-so! This kind of baseless backwards logic is exactly the problem with people who share your particular political opinions! --NeatNit (talk) 22:38, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
You're being sarcastic, right? Just want to be clear so we don't fuel the [potential] flames to come. ChessCake (talk) 22:51, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
I took "so-and-so" as proof that neatnit was joking. Angry people on the internet use harsher words. SDT 162.158.75.38 22:57, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
Definitely. Call someone a "blankety-blank" and you are inviting bloody revenge. These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 04:58, 20 December 2020 (UTC)
Definitely. The "so-and-so" instead of an insult, and the deliberately vague grouping of "people who share your particular political opinions" were a clear giveaway. :) --V2Blast (talk) 22:59, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
explainexplainxkcdcomments.com 172.68.65.154 00:54, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

It seems to me that one of the main messages in this comic is that voters for both Trump and Biden are pretty well distributed around the country. Looking at the typical choropleth maps with states colored red or blue, it can seem that the political division in the country is also a geographical division. This map, and the title text, emphasize that, at the scale of the whole country, that really isn't the case. The urban/suburban/rural breakdown isn't all that evident at this scale. Orion205 (talk) 07:06, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

The urban/suburban/rural breakdown isn't all that evident at this scale: au contraire, it's quite clear that the denser the area, the more Biden voters there are, even in red states. See Texas for instance, where around big cities you have more blue dots than red.141.101.107.160 10:51, 17 December 2020 (UTC)
And this map proves that many large areas of the country are still dangerously underpopulated to prevent democracy from becoming tyrannySeebert (talk)
I don't think more population would suffice for US to get reasonable number of political parties. -- Hkmaly (talk) 02:55, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

I found this map a few weeks ago and I love it, it kind of requires interactivity but it can be set to display the difference between population and land area in on of the best ways I've seen. Especially because you can set the population indicators to avoid overlapping, so you can get a land-area-like feel for their size. Kjmitch (talk) 18:27, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

Where does the .5 in the table for NY and CT come from? I can see that two markers sit across the border for the two states, but it personally seems to me that the numbers can be more accurate with some editing. 108.162.229.220 03:02, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

Well, I added the 0.5s for CT because I could see the markers sitting across the border. But since the full table wasn't available yet at that time, I didn't know whether it was split on purpose or just lack of space. If it's more accurate to assign the markers to either state, then feel to do that. 162.158.159.18 10:13, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

I have no memory of this XKCD getting published, even though I was following the comic well before 2020. Dang. 173.245.52.208 04:17, 16 March 2022 (UTC)

As seen on CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/17/politics/donald-trump-joe-biden-2020-election/index.html