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).