President of Texas

11. November 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Maps · Tags: , ,

Election seasons are always a great source of data, especially when the presidency is on the line. The following map of election results by county is not meant to show which candidate won Texas (that would be Mitt Romney). Nor is this map meant to show which candidate won each county. Instead, this map shows the relative strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. Obama did well in urban counties, while Romney was more popular in exurban and rural counties. The majority of Texas’ population now resides in the outer suburbs – areas hotly contested by both candidates. Obama also heavily outgunned Romney in the low-income counties along the Mexican border. As the Latino population of Texas grows, and immigration continues to be an important issue, how will this shake out in future elections?

Texas Election Results 2012 by percent

It may seem cliched, but the red vs blue paradigm is high-contrast and color-blindness friendly.

Data Sources: Politico.com, US Census
Projection: UTM 14N (WGS-84)
Tools: QGIS, GIMP

Introduction

11. November 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Business

Welcome to Critical Atlas! My name is Leigh and I am a professional GIS technician, cartographer, data visualizer, and web developer. Believe it or not, those are also my hobbies. When I encounter a neat set of data, I sometimes make a map or a chart to visualize the data, just for fun. Often, these visualizations lead to interesting and critical discussions of the data and its implications. My hope is that sharing these visualizations with the public will spark broader discussion on a wide range of topics.

Each map or chart shared on the site will include:

  • links to source data
  • information about projection
  • a list of the software tools used to create the image

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