# Cool graphic of the 2008 Electoral College results **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 28, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549 "2009-07-28T14:42:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/1 "2009-07-28T14:42:26Z")
Stumbled across this on Wikipedia. Each square is a single EC vote: [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cartogram-2008_Electoral_Vote.png) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cartogram-2008_Electoral_Vote.png) ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/2 "2009-07-28T15:29:32Z")
I love some of the simplified state shapes they used there. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/3 "2009-07-28T15:32:53Z")
A bit off topic, but seeing how big New Jersey was compared to some other states, and how out of proportion that is to reality, inspired me to do a little research: Put together, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Vermont, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Delaware encompass 1,082,511 square miles of land. New Jersey, at 8,722 square miles takes up 0.8% the land mass of those ten states. And their total population is just about the same. Can you please move over a little? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/4 "2009-07-28T15:40:11Z")
Never thought I’d see someone put Alaska and Rhode Island in the same list about area. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/5 "2009-07-28T16:09:27Z")
I noticed that Obama won one electoral vote in Nebraska – which of course is one of the two states that allows for a split vote. Ignoring “rogue electors”, does anyone know the last time a state legitimately (in accordance with state electoral laws) split its electoral vote prior to 2008? ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/6 "2009-07-28T16:10:52Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Never thought I’d see someone put Alaska and Rhode Island in the same list about area. Yeah. I’d make the list Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Idaho, and Nevada, with a total land area of 1,273,393 square miles. (Those are the eight states with the least population density in increasing order.) Probably makes ‘just about the same’ a little iffier, but the proportion goes down below 0.6% (New Jersey’s land area is 7,417.34 square miles - I’ve never seen the point of including water area in this sort of thing. 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/7 "2009-07-28T16:51:01Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I noticed that Obama won one electoral vote in Nebraska – which of course is one of the two states that allows for a split vote. Ignoring “rogue electors”, does anyone know the last time a state legitimately (in accordance with state electoral laws) split its electoral vote prior to 2008? According to [this article](http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/91960.html), Maine and Nebraska can, but as of the time the article was written (just before the election), neither had done so. According to Wikipedia, Michigan had its electors [split in 1892](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_College_(United_States)#Electoral_districts) during a temporary, politically-motivated switch to district-based apportionment. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/8 "2009-07-28T17:42:46Z")
Didn’t this map come out right after the election? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/9 "2009-07-28T18:59:29Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I noticed that Obama won one electoral vote in Nebraska – which of course is one of the two states that allows for a split vote. Ignoring “rogue electors”, does anyone know the last time a state legitimately (in accordance with state electoral laws) split its electoral vote prior to 2008? It depends on what you mean by “legitimately”. The last split because of _district-based election_ was, as noted, in 1892. However, there were other “legitimate” splits (that is, not rooted in faithless electors) due to single-elector voting, in which voters vote for a statewide slate but are allowed to select or strike out individual elector names. The last such split occurred in West Virginia in 1916. Also, there was the 6-5 split in Alabama in 1960, which resulted from a mixed slate of pledged and unpledged Democratic electors winning the Democratic elector primary. (Yes, they had such an animal in Alabama in 1960.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/10 "2009-07-28T19:22:39Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Didn’t this map come out right after the election? If it did, I didn’t see it then. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/11 "2009-07-28T19:36:54Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Didn’t this map come out right after the election? I first saw it in '71 as a DoD map for Project Scoop showing the spread of Andromeda. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/12 "2009-07-28T19:54:41Z")
That image gives me a strange urge to get into a 2-D spaceship and start firing lasers at it. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/13 "2009-07-28T20:26:10Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > That image gives me a strange urge to get into a 2-D spaceship and start firing lasers at it. Heh…the first thing out of my mouth when I saw that graphic was “Pew! Pew! Pew!” ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-graphic-of-the-2008-electoral-college-results/504549/14 "2009-07-28T22:01:40Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > Heh…the first thing out of my mouth when I saw that graphic was “Pew! Pew! Pew!” It makes me hope one of the backwards ‘L’ shaped ones drops so I can turn it upsided down and wedge it into the western edge of New York just as it lands.