2008 US Primary Elections

Published 21 January 8 7:55 PM | Laurence

I was able to make this primary map in a few hours (a how-to is coming soon) and I wanted to share it. Sure it's not quite as pretty as the Time or Newsweek versions but I think it does a decent job of capturing the appropriate look and feel. I'm also sure it took them a LOOONG time to put their maps together whereas mine was a relatively quick solution using SmartDraw and MapsAlive. 

You can use your mouse to drag the map around within the bordered area. Unfortunately, the map is wider than the column that I posted it in. [Ed: fixed]

 

Be sure to check back here since I'll be updating this map as results come in. What other information would be useful besides the winner? How could I make this map better?

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Comments

# Brian S. Friedlander said on January 21, 2008 3:26 PM:

Hi Laurence:

Very cool map - how did you do it?

Brian

assistivetek.blogspot.com

# Laurence said on January 24, 2008 9:44 AM:

The how-to is coming soon. Basically, I used MapsAlive coupled with SmartDraw to create an interactive map. It isn't quite as straightforward as one might hope, though.

# Aaron Stannard said on January 25, 2008 2:50 AM:

Very cool. I want to check out the how-to when it's available!

# Laurence said on January 25, 2008 11:01 AM:

Hey Aaron, I'll put the how-to up on Monday. By then, we'll have some more results as well.

# Yvon Kruger said on January 29, 2008 9:36 PM:

Hi Laurence,

This is great!  I'm not from the USA, but it could help me to follow the elections. I really want to learn how you did it!

# Laurence said on January 30, 2008 9:47 AM:

Yvon, check out my latest post for a quick overview of how I made the primary map.

# JFM said on January 30, 2008 9:54 AM:

You could make the map better by:

Swapping the colors of the backgrounds behind the donkey and the elephant so that they match the conventional representation.

You could add chart below the map listing all the candidates and tallying the number of states won by each.

If you wanted to get really fancy, you could make an animated version that would step through each day of primaries, updating the map and the chart together.

# Laurence said on January 30, 2008 12:04 PM:

JFM, thanks for pointing out the color mistake. That's just poor form. Super Tuesday (Feb 5th) will be a good time to change all the slides since so many primaries are held that day and I'll already be busy updating.

That chart idea sounds good. I'll put one together and throw it under the map.

The animation would certainly be fancy, but it's way out my league. I'll leave that up to someone else :)

# Juan Pinoy said on February 4, 2008 4:20 AM:

If Obam wins the primary and becomes the Democrat nominee, the next president will be McCain, it will be Republican again! But if Clinton wins, there is a big chance that the next US president will be Democrat. I just hope that democrat will not used the same stupidity as they did during 2004 primary.

# Forexman said on June 5, 2008 7:18 AM:

Hi. This is really interesting post. Thank You! I have just subscribed to Your rss!

Best regards

# Fabrice Mazerolle said on June 10, 2008 11:34 AM:

This method seems complicated to me. You can achieve better results using flash.

This reminds me about another tricky business chart somewhat related to clickable maps : Puzzle.

Powerframework has some interesting templates on using puzzles in powerpoint (and you can then create clickable maps or chart using these puzzles)

PUZZLES, MAPS, .... and what about 3D rotating and clickable map of the world ?

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