A Gauge of the Electoral College Totals

I’ve been looking for something that will enable me to see, at a glance, just how the complexion of the US Election is turning. Is it really, despite what one hears, predominantly Red or Blue? Because the number of delegates in the Electoral College is in no way related to the size of the states (in land area, that is), simply looking at a colour-coded map gives you a skewed view of who’s actually ahead, at least at a glance. Relatively small New York is dwarfed by Montana, even though it has over 10 times the delegates.

The polls only tell you the popular vote, and as we all know by now, that is only a partial indicator of how the Electoral College will go. With so many states ‘in play’ as the news media puts it, paying attention to the Electoral College totals makes more sense.

I was determined to find a view of the Electoral College totals, by state poll, effectively giving you an fairly efficient and understandable view of the current predictions. I found it at vote2008.thetakeaway.org, and here is what it looks like:

You can mouse over areas to get a poll-by-poll prediction, but the important point is that you can see at a glance, the likelihood of one candidate winning over another.

There’s a smaller version (without the interactivity, but it is dynamically updated) as well:

This is an interesting convergence of my interests! (politics and information design, that is).

Off the Wall

“What was that?”

“I don’t know. I was just heating up the saucepan.”

“OMIGOD! The TV is coming off the wall!”

“What the heck…Is there an earthquake or something?”

“Nope, it just started to come off.”

We called a TV Hanging company. Yes, there is such a thing. They came at the end of the day on Friday, and took the TV completely off the wall, since it was hanging on by 1 or 2 of the 3 screws, and said they’d return to re-hang it for $200 when they could find a slot to book us. We traded emails and set an appointment for the 17th (earliest possible date). At least it didn’t fall.

In the meantime, my office, which we cannibalized in order to get a desk sturdy enough to support the TV, looks like a tornado hit it. Printer is on the floor, papers and other junk (being stored in the desk) are everywhere. I’m starting to clean it up, but in the meantime, the first thing you see when you enter our condo is a huge mess. Lovely.