Understanding the Importance of Regions in Elections

1. WHY REGIONS ARE IMPORTANT GEOGRAPHY OF ELECTIONS WORKSHOPNovember 15, 2008

2. CONSIDER THE MAP The 2008 electoral vote. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/

3. CONSIDER THE MAP • The traditional map of the electoral vote would suggest that the country is divided into clear regions. But the reality is that this pattern is far from being as clear as it is on this simple map. • Since this is a map of electoral votes, subtle differences are masked by the largely winner take all nature of the electoral college.

4. CONSIDER THE MAP • The reality is that other variables come into play. One simple interpretation of the map is that the red region is a large part of the nation. • This map does not take into account the populations of each state.

5. CONSIDER THE MAP • There is a mapping technique called a cartogram which scales the map to represent variables which are independent of the area of the map. • In the case of this election map, units can be scaled in proportion to the population of the states. • Area is distorted in order to represent the population.

6. CONSIDER THE MAP A cartogram of the same vote.

7. CONSIDER THE MAP • A by county map shows a more refined pattern for the elections. • Patches of red and blue appear where previously the color was solid and the pattern becomes more complex. • We could continue this examination at finer and finer scales and see even more complexity.

8. CONSIDER THE MAP The 2008 electoral vote by county.

9. CONSIDER THE MAP • A glance at the states of Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania reveal a pattern that indicates that these states are mostly red states not blue states as the state-level maps show. • How then did those states end up being blue states rather than red states?

10. CONSIDER THE MAP A cartogram of the same vote.

11. CONSIDER THE MAP • The cartogram reveals that the answer is differences in population. Urban areas with higher populations voted Democratic while rural, low population areas, voted Republican. • Understanding the underlying factors helps to explain the patterns. In many cases the reality may not be as simple as the maps show.

12. WHAT ARE REGIONS? • Regions are conceptual organizations of the Earth’s surface. Geographic data collected from a variety of locations can be used to describe the similarities and differences between locations. Regions are an attempt to describe areas with unifying characteristics. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/standards/05/index.html

13. WHAT ARE REGIONS? • Regions may be defined by easily quantified values such as surveyed boundaries and precipitation or more imprecisely understood factors like religious beliefs. • Individual geographers may disagree on the boundaries of a region based on different interpretations of the geographic data.

14. WHAT ARE REGIONS? The reality is that regions are defined by overlapping sets of variables with varying distributions.

15. WHAT ARE REGIONS? • Regions are human constructs that reflect the conditions on the Earth’s surface and therefore are subject to some variation based a person’s interpretation of the data. • In spite of the somewhat subjective nature of the construction of regions there is a great deal of agreement on general regions.

16. WHAT ARE REGIONS? • Regions can be classified into three broad categories • Formal regions • Functional regions • Perceptual regions • Each of this types are widely recognized in the geography community and have well defined characteristics.

17. WHAT ARE REGIONS? Formal regions can be defined by boundaries and cooperative agreements as in the case of the European Union. http://www.sustainpack.com/images/eu/eu_map.gif

18. WHAT ARE REGIONS? Ecoregions are formal regions although these boundaries are less clear cut than political boundaries. http://www.epa.gov/wed/pages/ecoregions/na_eco.htm#Level%20I

19. WHAT ARE REGIONS? Functional regions are based on the connection between places based on transportation and economic activity. There may be additional factors like cultural connections. Meinig, D. W. 1972. American Wests: Preface to a Geographical Interpretation. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 62(2):159-184

20. WHAT ARE REGIONS? Perceptual regions represent ideas and have the least defined criteria on which the regions are constructed. http://www.unitedcountriesofbaseball.com/images/UCOB-1280x960.jpg

21. WHY USE REGIONS? • Regions help us to understand the complex variability of features on the Earth’s surface. • Regions are simple, understandable representations of what in reality is hard to define and understand. • Regions bring order to our understanding of the Earth.

22. EXAMPLES OF REGIONS The Nine Nations of North America. Garreau, Joel. 1981. The Nine Nations of North America. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. http://www.harpercollege.edu/mhealy/g101ilec/namer/nac/nacnine/na9intro/nacninfr.htm

23. EXAMPLES OF REGIONS Regions based on politics. January 2004 Boston Globe http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2006/11/09/28-the-10-regions-of-american-politics/

24. EXAMPLES OF REGIONS • Candidate Popular vote % of vote EV • Lincoln 1,865,908 39.8 180 • Douglas 1,380,202 29.5 12 • Breckinridge 848,019 18.1 72 • Bell 590,901 12.6 39 • 152 EV needed to win out of 303

25. EXAMPLES OF REGIONS • These numbers are hardly illustrative of a geographical pattern. Mapping the data reveals the patterns. • A map is just the start. In the election 1860 there were significant differences in the views of the electorate. Understanding the underlying causes of the vote pattern is needed to understand the pattern.

26. EXAMPLES OF REGIONS • Lincoln was not even on the ballot in nine southern states. He received 2% of the vote in southern, slave-holding states where he was on the ballot. For example, in Virginia he received 1.1% of the vote and in Kentucky 0.9% of the vote. In Missouri he received 10.3% because of a large number of German, Republican immigrants in the St. Louis area.

27. EXAMPLES OF REGIONS 1860 Presidential election. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1860_Electoral_Map.png

28. DEFINE A REGION • “Fortunately, no single issue like slavery divides the nation. Americans are more ‘purple’ than the red-blue narrative suggests. Still the media showcases Chardonnay-sipping, New York Times-reading, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, urban, progressive Democrats confronting beer-swilling, Rush Limbaugh-listening, pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, rural, conservative Republicans.” Troy, Gill. 2008. Bury the Hatchet. The Wilson Quarterly 32:66-69.

29. DEFINE A REGION • What variable would you use to define election regions in Colorado? • Would you use only data about people? • What about landforms? • Do natural resources play a part in the regionalization of the state? • Are the variables always clearly representative of the regions?

30. COLORADO LANDFORMS A generalized map of Colorado landforms. http://geosurvey.state.co.us/Default.aspx?tabid=448

31. COLORADO LANDFORMS Physiographic Provinces of Colorado. http://geosurvey.state.co.us/Default.aspx?tabid=131

32. COLORADO POPULATION Colorado population distribution.

33. HISPANIC POPULATION Hispanic population in the western portion of the United States. http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/atlas/censr01-111.pdf

34. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS The arrest of suspected illegal immigrants in December, 2006, included a Swift & Co. plant in Greeley. http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/detention2006.html

35. NATURAL RESOURCES Active oil and gas wells in Colorado, April 2008. http://skytruth.mediatools.org/node/15973

36. DEFINE A REGION • Each of the preceding maps illustrate some spatial factor which might have some impact on the patterns of votes. • Regions are an effective tool for student enquiry. • Regions can be used to illustrate the complexity of the Earth’s surface. • Thinking about regions reinforces critical thinking skills.