We Can't Avoid Politics this Time of Year

How can we let the campaign season go by without a post about elections and maps?  You might be sick of political ads, but most of what we see does not involve maps.  So check these out!

The maps below appeared with this post on smartblogs.com about two weeks ago. It summarizes the demographics and political landscape in Iowa with the help of a few maps.

The map above classifies five categories of political tendencies, from "Very Conservative" in dark red to "Liberal" in dark blue.  The mapping units to show these political categories are zip codes, so it's a bit hard to see detail in urban areas.  The post identifies zip code 52242 in Iowa City as the most liberal in the state, and 51460 in Ricketts as the most conservative.  The political classification was determined by an index not throughly explained, but someone could compare this to a precinct results map after the election to determine how accurate the index is.

Campaigns can use these maps to determine how to address people in different areas.  For example, a major factor in this election is the economy, so the post also included an unemployment map .  The following map shows the unemployment rate in Iowa according to county.

 Enjoy the ad filled weekend!