Reply #21: It's all purple. Red/Blue "state" is artifact of electoral system

[NAO]

I am in a very blue county (Pima) in a very red state (AZ). The * supporters were very visible here, but they were in the slight (minority).

The map that shows by county red/blue is much more representative than the red state/blue state map, which is an artifact of the winner-take-all electoral vote system.

The map that shows each county as a shade of purple based on the percentage of people that voted each way is much more accurate. Even is the "reddest" states, where Kerry did not win any counties, had a some percentage of people who voted Democratic.

The Real Picture of the 2004 Election:



go here: http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/ and click on the small purple map to see a much larger version where the details are easier to see.