Slashgeo

The Very Spatial blog links to a newly launched electoral geography website. From the VS entry: "There’s a LOT of good data there for anyone doing anything with elections around the world. They seem to be following a “beg, borrow, or steal” philosophy as far as the data (which I wholly support!), so you might have to do a little massaging to get into a form you can easily use for analysis."

Very Spatial and other blogs links to interactive maps about campaign contributions for the U.S. 2008 election [warning, it seems the maps don't work with Firefox]. From this article (including screenshots): "Being the FEC, the map is also not without bureaucratic guidelines. It only includes itemized individual contributions; PAC money or donations under $200 are not reported; and primary and general funds are not separated. Also, money transferred from cong. to WH accounts will be attributed to the state where the cong. cmte was registered -- So, all the “SEN” money that HRC raised from 22101 or 90210 is recorded as contributions out of NY State." See related stories below.

We covered electoral maps quite a few times in the past. The official Google LatLong blog discuss the mapping of where U.S. congressional provisions (or earmarks) are directing funds and links to a USA Today article. The Map Room links to an interactive map of the results of the recent Swiss federal election and links to a new U.S.-oriented site named The Electoral Map. Below I copied some of the previous stories related to elections, including this one on worldwide electoral geography website.

Here's a bunch of geonews related to Google Earth / Maps. First is unveiling of a collection of tools and databases based on Google Earth for the state of Alabama, named Virtual Alabama: "The department worked with Google to use Google Earth technology as its primary means of visualizing an operational picture around the state. The same tool will be used by first responders, county planners, and other officials to get detailed geographic views overlayed with critical information." The GEB also discusses anthropogenic biomes and population density maps for GE. The official Google Lat Long blog shares a gadget for the U.S. 2008 presidential election. Ogle Earth describes the free EarthNC trip and route planner tool for Google Earth. Related stories copied below.

From the GIS Development web site : "As the US presidential election season begins, the coming year promises a series of primaries, caucuses and straw polls, culminating in a general election in November. GIS and software development company to help geographically record, map, and analyze election day incidents in real-time, for the first time in the 103 years of Committee of Seventy. The primary challenge of incorporating GIS into this endeavor was to create a system that would enable both quick recording of incidents and real-time map generation." For the entire article see this web site : http://www.gisdevelopment.net/news/viewn.asp?id=GIS:N_wbpqhleozg

Yesterday was election day in the United States, several geoblogs links and discuss the various maps available online. Spatial Sustain shared numerous links, including the New York Times and Wired coverage, but also MSNBC interactive map, ABC News interactive map and Washington Post's detailed interactive map. The official Google Lat Long blog ran an entry on their special Google Maps, YouTube layers and Twitter updates. Very Spatial informs us about a BBC state-by-state map. All Points Blog links to an article on a multi-touch collaboration wall for the elections. And finally, DataLibre links to a map of the political blogosphere. See also previous stories below. I may add other sources below since I anticipate additional geoblog coverage in the coming days.

I admit Slashgeo did not share a lot on the U.S. presidential 2008 race so far. Here's what I found on the geoblogs. The early and absentee voting map: "Eventually I did find a good site and depicting map that shows state by state early voting practices. I found this map in a series of maps and detailed information on voting trends and patterns at the website hosted by the PEW Center for the States." MapHawk share a map with 'tool tips' from the LA Times: "The Tribune shows the historical margin of victory for the presidential candidate in past elections. They've made it easy by color-coding by the typical red vs. blue for each winning party. So, the result is a compelling tool that allows the user to determine how deep or shallow the margin of victory is and also provides some intelligence for looking at the current polls to determine if the party has a strong foundation." The same blog as a what-if map: "Using a variety of demographic variables including race, religion, and ethnicity, the user adjusts the percentage of the total turnout of these groups and to which candidate they would favor." The official Google Lat Long blog offers two entries, first one named How the US has voted since 1980 and second one sharing notes on election information. DM shares an interview regarding the Map the Vote initiative: "Map the Vote, a partner of the National Committee for an Effective Congress (NCEC), a progressive political action committee, contracted with Farallon Geographics to build a precinct-level data set for key battleground states in this year's U.S. presidential election. With data from the Democratic National Committee and using Oracle Spatial, Farallon processed over 20 million voter records to produce election precinct data sets." APB mentions the TimeSpace Election application: "The results are plopped down on a Google Map housed in a Flash/Flex app. Users are invited to share their own election coverage." The same blog also links to a newspaper endorsement map. GIS Dev Cafe shares campaign finance maps. The EiS offers an interactive ad spending map. On McCain specifically (haven't found any Obama-only map), the GEB offers a McCain geo-biography. The Map Room offers an entry named mapping McCain. Import cartography offers a map of McCain's houses. See also related stories below.