Electoral Votes of States - Time Graphs

[Space7]

Though we often talk about which way a state is trending in terms of voting Democratic or Republican, what about the other axis, population?



You'll need to "View Image" and zoom up on these graphs, because they're quite small. One pixel on the y-axis=1 electoral vote. One pixel on the x-axis=1 election, starting from the start of American history, and ending in 2020, when our current Electoral college is scheduled to be changed to a new one.

The above graph isn't very useful because not only do you not know which color is which state, but you also can't see many of the states because they are packed together near the bottom. For this reason, I have separated the states into groups, so you can see the individual lines better.

These graphs also double as a bit of a history lesson.

Appalachia



Brown:Pennsylvania
Green:Tennessee
Burgundy:Kentucky
Pink:West Virginia

Pennsylvania clearly has a decreasing population, relative to the rest of the nation. In general, the population of the other three appear to be decreasing slowly as well, except for maybe Tennessee.

Central Atlantic



Pink:Virginia
Yellow:North Carolina
Green:South Carolina
Blue:D.C.

The Atlantic States appear to be trending upwards, in terms of population (along with generally being Democratic-trending). I wonder if D.C will ever reach 4 electoral votes though...

Central Plains



Red:Texas
Purple:Oklahoma
Pink:Kansas
Slate:Nebraska
Blue:South Dakota
Lilac:North Dakota

Yes, the red line is Texas, easily the fastest expanding population in the US (relatively). Texas is of growing electoral importance, unlike the rest of this area, which appears to be diminishing, Oklahoma and Kansas in particular, look to be not maintaining their population. (I might add that North Dakota's line is hiding behind South Dakota's line for most of the time, if you're looking for it).

Lower Mid-East



Grey:Illinois
Blue:Ohio
Olive:Indiana
Forest Green:Missouri

Quite clearly, this zone has a rapidly diminishing electoral vote supply. Not one of the four has gained electoral votes for a long time, and none of their lines appear to be reversing or slowing down. Perhaps Ohio won't be the crown jewel of the swing states for too much longer...

Lower Northeast



Lime:New York
Bronze:New Jersey
Tan:Maryland
Purple:Delaware

The Center of Democratic power isn't exactly maintaining it's voting power. New York State, long one of the most populated states in the United States, is where the Democrats are losing most of the electoral votes from.  New Jersey, too, has run out of room for more population.

New England



Brown:Massachusetts
Light Blue:Connecticut
Pink:Maine
Purple:Rhode Island
Dark Blue:New Hampshire
Orange:Vermont

New England, like the Lower Northeast, appears to be losing population, but not as fast. This can probably be mainly attributed to the fact that it has less votes to lose.

North Rockies



Green:Colorado
Blue:Idaho
Violet:Montana
Turquoise:Wyoming

Not much to see here, except for the small noteworthy fact that Colorado has a semi-rapidly expanding population, and may be an important swing state in the future.

Pacific



Blue:California
Washington:Yellow
Oregon:Silver
Hawaii:Black
Alaska:Orange

California, with the most electoral votes of any state in US History, looks like it may be leveling off after long, rapid population growth. Washington and Oregon are still growing at a fairly quick pace, but they have a long way to go to catch up to California.

South Rockies



Orange:Arizona
Green:Utah
Yellow-Orange:New Mexico
Blue:Nevada

This relatively new zone in the American empire has a rapidly growing population. Arizona looks to be a more important state, electorally, in the future. Nevada, too, has surprising growth (it's hidden behind Utah, the green line, at the end). In fact, in the entire history of this zone, they have never lost an electoral vote .

The South



Tan:Florida
Brown:Georgia
Green:Alabama
Peach:Louisiana
Burgundy:Mississippi
Yellow:Arkansas

See that gap near the start of the graph? That's the civil war. Two of the southern states are growing quickly, Georgia, and Florida, though they look like they may be leveling out a bit. The rest appear to be fairly stably at lowish populations. The fastest growing areas of this zone are the least Republican, but Georgia is still quite Republican for the time being.

Upper Mid-East



Grey:Michigan
Purple:Wisconsin
Cyan:Minnesota
Light Blue:Iowa

Like the Lower Mid-East, this primarily Democratic area has a diminishing electoral vote count. Wisconsin and Minnesota are mostly maintaining their votes, but Iowa and Michigan's electoral power are clearly dropping quite fast. The Democrats will need to pick up new states, like Virginia, to make up for dwindling electors in this zone.

[opebo]

Looks really interesting but I can't see it.  I copied the image and put it in Paint to try to 'zoom', but it was not really very discernible once zoomed.

[Space7]

Hmm, really? They're all PNG Images, might JPG work better?

Are the pictures invisible, or do they simply look pixelated? The images are really quite small, 59 by 55 pixels, and the graphs are unlabeled. Each pixel on the x-axis represents 1 election, and each pixel on the y-axis represents one electoral vote, so the graph wont be clearer if you zoom in, only larger.

If other people are having trouble understanding the graphs at this scale, I suppose I could make them bigger, but it would take a long time... I made it small in the first place so my computer could easily handle and switch between the 52 layers.

[opebo]

How do you suggest looking at them?  In Paint?

[Space7]

How do you suggest looking at them?  In Paint?

I suppose so, unless you have a preferred program. Shrinking the canvas to 59 by 55 pixels may be a good idea, so you can see the edges easier. It works okay in Paint for me.

[opebo]

I just see a chaotic bunch of little bars of color.  Very hard to look at...

[Space7]

I just see a chaotic bunch of little bars of color.  Very hard to look at...

I suppose it's always easier for the maker to understand something than the viewer. At some point I might update them for easier readability, but not yet.

Try looking at the individual regions, rather than the full graph, because the lines aren't on top of each other as much in those ones. Hopefully they are easier to read.