Four maps: 1948 vs. 2004

As we progress through the presidential election year, I'll be posting maps and spreadsheets showing how American political geography has changed over the past 60 years, and how those trends went into the making of the 10 Political Regions map. First, here are four very basic maps comparing 1948 with 2004 in terms of the percentage received by Democratic candidates in each county, and also in terms of the raw-vote margin between the two major parties. (Note that the Democratic vote in four states in 1948 -- Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina -- was mostly siphoned off by Dixiecrat candidate Strom Thurmond.) I'll be filling adding maps that show what went on between these two elections, as well as close-ups of geographical regions.

UPDATE: See 1960 maps here.

Comments

[Harry]

The Democratic Party has become to liberal and lost the appeal that it once had to working and middle class voters.
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[Jane Baker]

Fascinating to see these political trends over time. In a decidedly non-scientific poll in 2004, my sons set up a WorldVote web site. The concept was to poll opinions from around the world and among all age groups (explicitly those too young to vote) about the U.S. Presidential election. Numbers of votes were not extensive (in some states, shown in white on their maps, no votes were cast at all), but the outcome is most striking. Their poll got everything right except Ohio, and in every country for which votes were tallied, blue reigned supreme. My daughter has revived the site and the polling for the 2008 presidential election. Log on and vote! See www.worldvote.net.