Mapping election results in proportional electoral systems

Abstract

The paper presents a technique for efficient visualisation of election results in proportional electoral systems. Three cartographic methods (cartogram, inward-oriented buffer and proportional striping) are combined to produce a static map that gives an overview of the distribution of voting power, the electoral abstention and the election results. Unlike the conventional design that shows only the winning subjects, the proposed technique allows reader to analyse the results within a district as well as in the context of the whole country. Regional differences and patterns not present on conventional election maps can be observed. The proposed technique is demonstrated on a map of Slovak parliamentary election held in 2012.ARTICLE HISTORY

Who are the voters and where are they? Using spatial statistics to analyse voting patterns in the parliamentary elections of the Czech Republic

“…Electoral processes do not exist in a void, they are geographic, that is, they are inherently linked to the locations at which they occur (Mansley & Demšar, 2015). Most English-speaking countries use plurality voting system (FPTP), and the majority of cartographic literature describes visualizations suitable for such electoral systems (Ondrejka, 2016). Various types of rectangular cartograms (Heilmann et al, 2004), hexagons (Field, 2015a), and splashes (Field, 2015b), among many other methods (Field & Dorling, 2016), were used to visualize election results, but often only from one period/election.…”

Representação espacial de dados eleitorais no Brasil: críticas e possibilidades

“…Nas últimas décadas, muitas inovações foram implementadas nos algoritmos visando a otimizar a precisão estatística e geográfica e a preservar os contornos das formas adjacentes. Em função das inovações, diversos autores apontam para a anamorfose como sendo um aprimoramento dos recursos de representação espacial de dados multidimensionais, dentre eles, Herb et al (2009); Dutenkefer (2010Dutenkefer ( , 2018; Field & Dorling (2016); Gonçalves (2016); Nusrat & Kobourov (2016); Ondrejka (2016); Forest (2017); Gusein-Zade & Tikunov (2017); Li & Aryana (2017); Markowska (2019).…”

Electoral geography: From mapping votes to representing power

“…At the same time, scholarly cartography continues to grapple with the challenge of representing electoral data in clear and effective ways (e.g.,Ondrejka, 2016). (Source: Map by author; data from Federal Election Commission, www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2000/ptables.xlw.)…”