# An extremely detailed map of the 2016 election **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 27, 2018, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656 "2018-07-27T03:14:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/41 "2018-07-27T15:59:38Z")
> [@pjacks](#): > > The most depressing thing about this is that in my zip code, which has a population of around 80,000, only a little over 600 people voted for either candidate. You must be looking at something wrong, there’s no place with a turnout that low. When I looked at the map, it broke it down into a very small section of just my neighborhood, and there were many such precincts in my zip code. It showed 1012 people voting and the bill of them probably live in my high rise as most of the rest of the district is businesses or other non residential properties ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/42 "2018-07-27T16:02:55Z")
This map really highlights the racial segregation of certain cities in the south. Check out for example [Anniston](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html#10.26/33.681/-85.901/171339) [Alabama](http://www.city-data.com/city/Anniston-Alabama.html). I also find in interesting that looking along the border with Mexico which are supposedly begging for Trumps border wall, to save them from the rampaging hoards of illegals, the colors vary from dark blue to light pink. ETA: Oh yes, I’m firmly in bubble land Apen Hill MD 70-25 Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/43 "2018-07-27T16:44:21Z")
While the 2016 Prez vote may not be a bad proxy for race, you [can see race (based on 2010 census) directly at this webpage](https://demographics.virginia.edu/DotMap/index.html). Blue is Caucasian, Green Negro, Red Asian, Brown Hispanic. The map isn’t restricted to precinct granules — you can zoom in until, supposedly, one dot equals one person! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/44 "2018-07-27T17:27:54Z")
Ooh, thanks, **John Mace** , I’ll have a lot of fun playing around with that data! ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/45 "2018-07-27T18:00:32Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Obviously because so many of the red precincts are rural and have large areas–though usually not that many voters. If you have a huge precinct with only five people–3 people for one candidate, 2 for the other candidate, it still takes on the color of one, and shows a 20% point difference, even though there’s only one more person for that candidate in the precinct. If you just look at the overall color impression of an area, you’re not using the map correctly. Some election maps–not as detailed as this one–account for population density. [A New 2016 Election Voting Map Promotes … Subtlety](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/a-new-2016-election-voting-map-promotes-subtlety.html) ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/46 "2018-07-27T18:12:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve a hypothesis I’d like to test, that the more Trump voters there are in a county, the more strongly that county went to Clinton. I’m not sure this is a meaningful connection to draw. In big cities there will always be more voters - of **all** persuasions and stripes - than in rural counties. Big cities have always been blue, long before Trump ran for office; they went blue for Obama, Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Dukakis etc. So there will be more Trump voters in downtown Boston than in some corn-farming county in Nebraska, but downtown Boston would go for Hillary. It’s not the Trump factor, it’s the urban factor. Is your theory that the presence of Trump voters motivated Hillary voters in their vicinity to turn out for Clinton? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/47 "2018-07-27T18:14:38Z")
> [@Orwell](#): > > This adds credence to the “Bubble” theory that more liberals live in liberal bubbles than conservatives who live in conservative bubbles. If you live in a place that voted 99 percent Clinton, with local and national media that are liberal, there’s your bubble. Let me pop your bubble. Those precincts are guaranteed to be virtually 100% black or other minority. They are guaranteed not to be latte-sipping vegans driving Priuses or whatever the idiotic and false stereotype of bubble liberals might be. In fact, they might not be liberals at all by various definitions, but they sure as hell know better than to ever vote for a Republican. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/48 "2018-07-27T18:24:19Z")
> [@Shagunathor](#): > > It is no surprise that in Wyoming about the only blue precincts are in the college town (Laramie), the place where Hollywood types go to retire (Jackson), and the Wind River Reservation. I have no ready explanation for the small blue precinct in Cheyenne. The most surprising part is 70 votes in my neighborhood here in Gillette went for Clinton! That is 68 more votes than I would have expected. ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/49 "2018-07-27T18:34:57Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Let me pop your bubble. Those precincts are guaranteed to be virtually 100% black or other minority. They are guaranteed not to be latte-sipping vegans driving Priuses or whatever the idiotic and false stereotype of bubble liberals might be. In fact, they might not be liberals at all by various definitions, but they sure as hell know better than to ever vote for a Republican. I don’t recall mentioning race or ethnic background at all in my post. Let me check… Nope, I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/50 "2018-07-27T18:35:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Velocity** : > > I’m not sure this is a meaningful connection to draw. In big cities there will always be more voters - of all persuasions and stripes - than in rural counties. Big cities have always been blue, long before Trump ran for office; they went blue for Obama, Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Dukakis etc. So there will be more Trump voters in downtown Boston than in some corn-farming county in Nebraska, but downtown Boston would go for Hillary. It’s not the Trump factor, it’s the urban factor. > Is your theory that the presence of Trump voters motivated Hillary voters in their vicinity to turn out for Clinton? While that might be a cute way of looking at it, that’s not actually my reasoning. Rather, it’s a refutation of the idea that liberals live in liberal bubbles while conservatives live in conservative bubbles. I think that the correct model is that conservatives live in bubbles, while liberals do not. Conservatives, who mostly live in rural areas, are able to isolate themselves in bubbles with very few people who think differently, simply by virtue of the fact that they interact with very few people, total. Liberals, however, who live mostly in urban areas, are surrounded by so many people, and hence interact with so many people, that they’re inevitably going to interact with more people who disagree with them. On a first pass through the data, I’ve noticed a couple of interesting things so far. First, while there is definitely a correlation in all three years, it’s significantly stronger in 2016 than it was in 2008. That is to say, the bubble effect is increasing. Second, college towns appear to be visible as a distinct feature of the graph, which might be considered to be something like a “liberal bubble”, except that, even there, college towns _still_ have more conservatives than rural areas do. Both of these conclusions are still tentative-- In particular, I only sampled a couple of points in that section of the graph to verify that they’re college towns. And given how widely populations vary, I should probably be using the log of the number of R voters in my correlations, not the number itself. But it’s interesting so far. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/51 "2018-07-27T19:04:14Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > While the 2016 Prez vote may not be a bad proxy for race, you [can see race (based on 2010 census) directly at this webpage](https://demographics.virginia.edu/DotMap/index.html). Blue is Caucasian, Green Negro, Red Asian, Brown Hispanic. The map isn’t restricted to precinct granules — you can zoom in until, supposedly, one dot equals one person! “Negro”? Really? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/52 "2018-07-27T19:11:47Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > “Negro”? Really? I’m fairly sure \*\*Septimus \*\*is not an American. Might explain it. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/53 "2018-07-27T19:23:31Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I’m fairly sure \*\*Septimus \*\*is not an American. Might explain it. Maybe so, but even the map he linked to lists Green as “Black”. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/54 "2018-07-27T21:19:28Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > “Negro”? Really? I half-predicted this reaction, but hoped Dopers might have grown up. I felt that “… Blue is White”, “Green is Black …” might foster unnecessary confusion. But should have known that Dopers would not overlook a chance to value form over substance and make a pointless objection. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/55 "2018-07-27T23:00:57Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I half-predicted this reaction, but hoped Dopers might have grown up. I felt that “… Blue is White”, “Green is Black …” might foster unnecessary confusion. But should have known that Dopers would not overlook a chance to value form over substance and make a pointless objection. I don’t think it’s pointless to object to the use of a pejorative term. The key code was attached directly on the map you linked. If you thought it would cause confusion to list it that way in your post, perhaps you could have assumed the inherent intelligence of Dopers would allow them to look at the map without the need for an explanation before clicking. Or even easier, just use the term “African-American”. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/56 "2018-07-27T23:09:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That map takes forever to load for me. > > As an aside, does anyone have a text or spreadsheet file of county-level results across the country? I’ve a hypothesis I’d like to test, that the more Trump voters there are in a county, the more strongly that county went to Clinton. Are you implying any correlation will be causation? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/57 "2018-07-28T00:49:49Z")
I’ve already answered that. I am not assuming causation, and in fact it is overwhelmingly likely that the correlation is due to a common cause. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2018, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/58 "2018-07-28T19:10:28Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > I don’t think it’s pointless to object to the use of a pejorative term. The key code was attached directly on the map you linked. If you thought it would cause confusion to list it that way in your post, perhaps you could have assumed the inherent intelligence of Dopers would allow them to look at the map without the need for an explanation before clicking. Or even easier, just use the term “African-American”. “Negro” is NOT pejorative. Never has been. It’s just gone out of fashion because it is too easily associated with the pejorative that sound like it. Unless you’d like to suggest that the United Negro College Fund is using a pejorative in its name? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_lining](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Silver\_lining](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_lining)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/59 "2018-07-29T10:24:55Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > Man, there’s a lot of red on that map. Dem’s have it easy, they only need to visit a few places for elections. As of 2018 there are 33 Republicans, 16 Democrats, and 1 Independent holding the office of governor in the states. There are 2 Democrats, 1 Independent and 2 Republicans (one is also a member of the New Progressive Party) as governor of United States Territories and Mayor of the District of Columbia. So essentially Republicans outnumber Democrats 2 to 1 in running states. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656/60 "2018-07-29T11:02:01Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Unless you’d like to suggest that the United Negro College Fund is using a pejorative in its name? hmmm…so how do you feel about them colored folk? After all, they proudly named their own organization the NAACP. Times change, language changes, and people’s sensitivity to insults changes. Always best to err on the side of politeness. Still, I agree with you that in your post, it would have sounded awkward to write “Blue is white,Green is Black”. So in this case, Caucasian and Afro-American are the preferable terms. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-extremely-detailed-map-of-the-2016-election/818656.md?page=4)