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What’s Going On in This Graph? | 2020 Presidential Election Maps
These two maps show the results of the 2020 presidential election. Which map does a better job of visualizing the outcome of the election?
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Students in U.S. high schools can get free digital access to The New York Times until Sept. 1, 2021.
For the 2020 presidential election, the top map shows each state with its number of Electoral College votes by winner and the bottom map shows each state’s winner. The graphs appeared elsewhere on NYTimes.com.
By Friday morning, Dec. 4, we will reveal the graphs’ free online link, additional background and questions, shout-outs for great student headlines, and Stat Nuggets.
After looking closely at the maps above, answer these four questions:
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What do you notice?
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What do you wonder?
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What impact does this have on you and your community?
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What’s going on in this graph? Write a catchy headline that captures the maps’ main idea.
The questions are intended to build on one another, so try to answer them in order.
2. Next, join the conversation online by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box. (Teachers of students younger than 13 are welcome to post their students’ responses.)
3. Below the response box, there is an option for students to click on “Email me when my comment is published.” This sends the link to their response which they can share with their teacher.
4. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button to address that student directly.
On Wednesday, Dec. 2, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.
5. By Friday morning, Dec. 4, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that included this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.
More?
• See all graphs in this series or a slide show of 60 of our favorite graphs.
• View our archives that link to all past releases, organized by topic, graph type and Stat Nugget.
• Learn more about the “Notice and Wonder” teaching strategy and how and why other teachers are using this feature from our on-demand webinar.
• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live-moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.
• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, professional development opportunities, and more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
UPDATED: Dec. 3, 2020
The Reveal
These maps appeared in the November 11, 2020 New York Times election summary “Presidential Election Results: Biden Wins.” There are also other maps by size of lead, by shift in voting by party from 2016, and by state.
The bottom map is replete with red showing Trump support down the middle two-thirds of the country and blue with Biden support at the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well as the Upper Midwest and a few other states. With the exact same election results, the top map shows a more evenly distributed mix of Trump and Biden support. How can the same data visually give the impression of such different amounts of support? It’s all in how the data are shown. The top tile map shows the number of Electoral College votes by state. The bottom choropleth map shows the winner by state. There are many other ways of showing the data. Both graphs are accurate representations. Which graph you choose is based on what you want to know.
Many responses wondered why Nebraska and Maine divided their Electoral College votes between the two candidates. While all other states assign all of their Electoral College votes to the overall winner of the popular vote, these two states assign two of their votes based on who receives the most votes statewide, and the rest of their votes based on the winner within each Congressional district. In Maine, Biden had the most votes statewide, but Trump had more votes than Biden in Maine’s northern 2nd congressional district, earning one of Maine’s four Electoral College votes. In Nebraska, Trump had the most votes statewide, but Biden had more votes than Trump in Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district, which includes Omaha. Biden therefore earned one of Nebraska’s five Electoral College votes.
Here are some of the student headlines that capture the story of these maps: “Land Doesn’t Vote, People Do” by Sophia of New Hampshire and by Matthew of Ohio; “The Truth Behind Election Maps” by Jackson of New Hampshire; “Accurate Electoral Map Shows Biden Got More Votes Than You Might Think” by Aidan of Ohio; and two Red/Blue headlines — “America’s Red or Blue Future.” by Kayshaleen of Massachusetts, and “Blue or Red, Biden Is The Ultimate Winner On These Maps” by Sarah from Academy of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown, New Jersey.
You may want to think critically about these questions:
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The Electoral College map (top) depicts three categorical variables — state, location of state, and party winning the Electoral College votes, and one quantitative variable — number of Electoral College votes. What “story” does this map tell? Who would want to tell this story?
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The winner by state map (bottom) has three categorical variables — state, location of state, and party winning Electoral College votes, and no quantitative variables. What “story” does the bottom map tell? Who would want to tell this story?
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Here’s another map that appeared in the article “Presidential Election Results: Biden Wins.” There are three categorical variables — county, location of county, and party winning each county, and one quantitative variable — percentage increase in votes above 2016.
What do you notice? What do you wonder? What story does this map tell that is not revealed in the other two maps?
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The data could be displayed in a graph, rather than a map. Give examples of how the Electoral College data and the state winner data could be displayed in a graph. What story do these graphs tell? What are the advantages of using a map? What are the advantages of using a graph?
Next week’s graph on America’s “exceptionalism” will be released by Friday, Dec. 4 with live-moderation on Wednesday, Dec. 9. You can receive the 2020-2021 “What’s Going On In This Graph?” schedule by subscribing here to the Learning Network Friday newsletter. Keep noticing and wondering.
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Stat Nuggets for “Presidential Election Results: Biden Wins”
To see the archives of all Stat Nuggets with links to their graphs, go to this index.
TILE MAP
A tile map, or tiled noncontiguous cartogram, is a map that adjusts geographic areas to depict their corresponding quantitative variable. An attempt is made to preserve the shape and the relative location of the actual areas.
In the 2020 Electoral College results map, all fifty states are shown in approximate spatial relation to each other. Squares represent the state’s number of Electoral College votes and are configured, as much as possible, to appear similar to the state’s shape. The color of the squares show the candidate of each Electoral College vote — red for Trump and blue for Biden. A tile map allows for showing that Nebraska and Maine had all but one Electoral College vote for a candidate. This one vote is represented by one square of the opposite color of the rest of their votes.
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The graphs for “What’s Going On in This Graph?” are selected in partnership with Sharon Hessney. Ms. Hessney wrote the “reveal” and Stat Nuggets with Erica Chauvet, mathematics professor at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania, and moderates online with Ben Kirk, a high school mathematics and statistics teacher at Ithaca High School in Ithaca, New York.
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