Washington 2008 President by Precinct

[Alcon]

Sweeeet!  There's definitely an elections geek at the SoS's office who has kicked their data collection into high gear.  They have some amazing stuff, although alas no shapefiles for 2009 yet.

I can probably get correct 2008 shapefiles for most counties.  I can see you definitely need Clark, King and Snohomish; and San Juan, which appears to be missing.  How off is Pierce?  We have some voter privacy suppression but everything else looks all right.  Any other needed counties?

I also can probably hook you up with a water shapefile that makes Mason look less screwy.

[Alcon]

Here is a modified version of the state map with half-assed explanations:



I focused on urban areas and unusual Democratic areas -- most of the unlabeled areas are rural and Republican and not especially distinct, although there are some differences.  When I get to it I'll improve them and make a Puget Sound version.

Not exactly professional, but it's a good learner's guide for the morbidly curious.

[Alcon]

where you wrote "loggers", add "Twilight tourism" -- I was stuck in Forks for several hours because I missed a bus, and it was full of women who looked exactly like this and signs like "BLAH HOTEL - TWILIGHT ROOMS."  This may explain why Forks doesn't vote like Port Angeles or even Sequim.  Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

Haha.  Well, Forks's Republicanness dates way pre-Twilight, but it did have a big 2008 swing.  I'm sure tourism isn't making it any more Republican, although I really doubt that's having any real effect.  It's probably just mostly local opportunists making use of the money, not even any service industry moving there.  I mean, even a few Twilight folks moving in -- assuming they have a more Democratic tilt than the town as a whole -- is not going to make a massive difference in a town of 3,300.

[Alcon]

Sweeeet!  There's definitely an elections geek at the SoS's office who has kicked their data collection into high gear.  They have some amazing stuff, although alas no shapefiles for 2009 yet.

I can probably get correct 2008 shapefiles for most counties.  I can see you definitely need Clark, King and Snohomish; and San Juan, which appears to be missing.  How off is Pierce?  We have some voter privacy suppression but everything else looks all right.  Any other needed counties?

I also can probably hook you up with a water shapefile that makes Mason look less screwy.

Great - possibly Benton and Skamania - most counties were "perfect" - at least the precincts lined up with the descriptions in the files.  Pierce isn't too bad - not sure how many changed boundaries.  San Juan shape file is awful though... all the water is included.  Pacific and Skagit are also that way, but I purged the water with the county shapes in the image. 

Ah, yeah, I hate that.

So, we need water-friendly versions of Mason and San Juan; and updated versions of Benton, Clark, King, Pierce and Snohomish.  Skamania should be fine.  They haven't reprecincted since the beginning of time; they just have several precincts that are unpopulated Pinchot National Forest land.  Only thing there there is that the unshaded low-county precinct (Wind Mountain South) should actually be D>50 like the one above it (Wind Mountain North), which should be NVC.

[Alcon]

Dave, any chance for 2008 presidential primary maps by precinct?

There are some precinct changes, but those uploaded maps actually may in some cases be the 2008 primary maps...I have the file for whenever you need it.  It may even be on the state web site by now; it's down and I can't check.