A More Detailed View of Elections

Every presidential election we see red and blue state maps turn into red and blue county maps then the entire country gets coated in shades of purple.  Well if you thought that's the end, check out the below presidential election map using Iowa's almost 1,700 precincts. 

During the redistricting process that happens after every decennial census, Iowa counties submit their new voter precincts to the Iowa Secretary of State (SOS).  After the most recent redistricting, the SOS compiled all the county precincts into  a layer that is the original building block for what you see below.

The SOS website makes available downloadable election results according to individual precinct for every race in the state.  From small town mayor to presidential candidates, you can see where votes came from.  The map below shows the percentage of people in each precinct that voted for President Obama.  The shades of blue represent values over 50%, with the tan to red colors showing less than 50% of the vote.
With this more detailed view of Iowa someone could more closely examine the ins and outs of the Iowa electorate. 

For a higher resolution map of presidential results, click this link.