What is that distorted map?
Beginning 10 May 2008, a cartogram is included in the presidential poll analyses: The cartogram scales the area of each state according to its electoral vote total. Thus, Alaska is scaled to the same size as Washington D.C.—both have three votes in the Electoral College. The cumulative area covered by each color on the cartogram is an honest representation of the proportion of electoral votes that would be expected if a general election were held. For more information on cartograms, check out Mark Newman’s web page or Victor L. Vescovo’s book The Atlas of World Statistics (2006, published by Caladan Press).
