The U.S. presidential elections are right around the corner and it seems that just about everyone is looking for news, poll results, and other political coverage both online and off. For those of you who are still eagerly devouring anything related to the elections, you'll want to check out these five tools for visualizing election data. From earmarks to electoral votes, there's a lot you can learn from the apps listed here.
The non-profit organization called Sunlight Foundation, whose mission is to use the Internet to make information about the U.S. government more accessible, just released a visualization of campaign contributions from 1990-2008, broken down by industry sectors and party lines. From this app, profiled on Programmable Web, you can see how the finance, insurance, and real estate industries spend more than others. The visualization is interactive - just push the play button after configuring the settings. It was built using Google Motion Chart and data from OpenSecrets.
Earmarks are a hot topic in the current U.S. Presidential election. You can visit the web site earmarkwatch.org to investigate those spending measures inserted by members of Congress into bills that direct taxpayer dollars to their pet projects. But an even easier way to track which states are the worst for using earmarks, this visualization over on ManyEyes is useful. Wow, look at Alaska!
University of Utah computer scientists have written software they hope will eventually allow anyone to interactively and visually analyze election results, political opinion polls or other surveys. The software displays data in the form of "radial" charts that are doughnut-shaped and include features of traditional pie charts and bar graphs. The charts are interactive and animated, too. You can watch a video demonstration over here, but unfortunately, the poll-analysis software isn't quite ready for prime time. What a tease!
This interactive visualization widget provides an overview of the predicted outcome of the U.S. presidential election. The rows depict the results from different news agencies (The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, etc.) and the columns represent the different U.S. states. The states width is based on the number of electoral votes they have available. Political bloggers will really like this one, too - it's embeddable!
This next visualization, perspctv.com, is an informational dashboard that summarizes and graphs the Internet activity relating to the 2008 presidential elections. The charts compare the similarities as well as the differences between the mainstream media and user-generated content, such as that found on political blogs. Currently, the graphs include CNN polls, new mentions, blogosphere mentions, Twitter mentions, a U.S. electoral map, and Google Trends-based timelines. (via information aesthetics)
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Dynamite post, following up on all five now. Thanks for the links and heads up
Posted by: Daltonsbriefs
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October 8, 2008 6:24 AM
Awesome set of tool, thanks for link http://tinyurl.com/3fh5q3
Posted by: Daltonsbriefs
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October 8, 2008 6:28 AM
Great article.
We in the UK have just discovered "wordles" or tag clouds during the recent season of political conferences. The words that came out were "today", "financial" and "help". Rather appropriate.
Posted by: John Welsh
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October 8, 2008 7:03 AM
here's 35! -- http://friendfeed.com/e/5228f126-7045-46af-a57a-7992295509e9/35-Cool-Visualizations-on-2008-US-Presidential/
Posted by: Cee Bee
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October 8, 2008 7:23 AM
The problem with tracking Twitter mentions and Blogosphere mentions is that you don't know which *side* the "mention" is on. For example, I regularly post about Obama on my blog. I am posting reasons why you should NOT vote for him. I don't mention McCain anywhere in my posts. That would give Obama a "mention"... but it's a negative mention. Twitter has the same issue.
Posted by: TheBisch | October 8, 2008 11:25 AM
Very, very cool - thanks so much for pulling this all together!
Posted by: Marco | October 8, 2008 3:09 PM
The first two are my favorite, because anyone can use Google Docs or Many Eyes and get hands-on learning about data visualization.
It would be even better if a copy of the spreadsheet were published, so readers could see exactly how the chart was constructed.
Posted by: michael.chelen.myopenid.com
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October 8, 2008 9:32 PM
Great list of visualizations of the polls.
I use another cool widget that may fit in your list!
I think you might like it:-)
http://www.youcalc.com/apps/1221747067033
... and its easy to put on your blog and fits in your sidebar!
Make a difference, keep on voting!
Posted by: Michael Wilson | October 9, 2008 12:39 AM
These are great tools! I work for a company called SnapStream which creates a TV appliance that allows users to not only record thousands of hours of television, but also allows them to search _within_ those recordings for any keyword or topic (based on closed-captioning, amongst other things). A couple of weeks ago we did some visualizations of politics on TV just for fun. Thought you might be interested in the results.
The first one shows the number of mentions of Biden, Palin, Obama and McCain during the conventions...very surprising and interesting results:
http://enterpriseblog.snapstream.com/2008/09/tv-coverage-of-the-conventions-and-the-winner-is-hurricane-gustav/
We also created word clouds from the transcripts of the Daily Show and The O'Reilly Factor:
http://enterpriseblog.snapstream.com/2008/09/visualizing-television-news-experiment/
What do you think?
Posted by: Lynne Burke | October 9, 2008 6:11 AM
I have to say this: the radial chart (#3) is the stupidest idea of the year, visualization-wise.
Marketing fluff (3D pie charts, exploded slices) is silly, but adding multiple series to a single chart is technically wrong and a display of pure ignorance.
A circular chart (pie, doughnut...) shows part-of-a-whole, always. The whole is, by definition, 100%, and that's what the reader expects. Never 200% or 300%.
Posted by: Jorge Camoes | October 12, 2008 2:46 PM
We have a portal running where we analyse the candidates for the presidential election. The visualizations are classic line charts, but we track both attention and sentiment towards the candidates in various online media.
http://www.ecoresearch.net/election2008/
Posted by: Walter | October 15, 2008 8:54 AM
America has several major Achilles heels which the next president must address if the world is to be saved from the greatest tragedy of the last decades.
1 – Restore the nation to the great icon that it once was – America seems to think that it continues to be the becon of hope that it grew up as. An honest look from within, (and that’s the hardest thing for any American to do, lots of other nations we but we have never been able to see ourselves), and in a very very short space of time you will realize that the US is now a creator of disaster, generally in other peoples countries. I’m not talking about Iraq or Georgia or any other current ‘hot spot’, I’m talking about the every day lives that we have affected in the friendly countries, our so called friends and allies. I travel I lot and I regularly hear comments from foreigners like – where did this come from its awful, must have been the US. I’m afraid I agree, we create a load of crap and then export it with trade embargoes to other countries – fast food, stupid sized cars, screwed up TV programs.
2 – Regain the respect of the world. We are now a nation of fat people, under achievers and pompous people that think we own Gods earth – this is the sad view our so called allies have of us. Our enemies hate us and our friends bear with us with a serious inner distaste for us and our society. We are the laughing stock of the world.
3 – Do what we say. We have spent the last few years playing God, deciding what is good for everyone else in the world and trying to impose our way in their cultures and civilizations. Yet when the Russians went into Georgia we said- hold on this is the 21st century. Our politicians may try to spin us nonsense about how just it was, how it was for the local people – would we have done it if we gained nothing. Truth is both sides have usually lost, us least of all our self respect. Why should it be only the US that decides who can attack who – forget the spin doctoring, we think we are God and we are not. Wake up and smell the coffee. America began to slide several decades ago and this election will decide if it will be a complete collapse or a half hearted save attempt. Our military is not our answer, we will not conquer the water and gas we need for the next 100 years. What about we blow China out of the water so we can become powerful again?
4 – If we can’t save ourselves at least try to save the planet we live on. We have destroyed it, there is no debate there, we are the single biggest cause of global warming on earth and our politicians are trying to say that we are the saviour – a saviour with 10 times more consumption that resources, a country that has failed to try to reduce emissions to anywhere close to sensible levels, (remember that we start miles above the rest of the world on emissions even before we try to reduce), the one single biggest obstacle to climate change progress and realizing new targets. The truth is the US needs to move very very very fast to change, talking and drilling will not work, that’s a fact.
Who do you want to vote for?
Me I doubt there is decent politician in America who cannot be corrupted by money – we thrive on how much money we have, money is our God. I’ll give you my views
McCain – A military hero. so what? That means bombs and bullets, agree or die. The last thing we need. Too old for the job. Not a good ambassador for the country, lacks knowledge and more importantly does not have the team to cope with what our country needs. Too many friends that are part of the old boys club to look after before he can run the country.
Obama – Inexperienced, but maybe that good, a new set of eyes. Don’t know the man but appears to have a more universal and less blinkered approach to our country and the world. He might make some mistakes – but look where experience has got now. He will learn from them and do his best to fix them. He is a leader character. With a good mentor he may provide the catalyst for change.
We have too choices – the McCain more of the same, probably worse disaster military tactics or an inexperienced but determined open minded new blood.
Posted by: Pierre | October 15, 2008 7:10 PM
McCain is a walking disaster. I'm not american, and boy I'm glad. If he is the best person that the party can find to lead then i think the american superpower days will disappear to dust. As for his running mate, little Miss Palin, jeepers creepers, stop wasting our time.
McCain thinks he knows about foreign policy because he served. Other than this very tedious link, he has limited knowledge on the rest of the country. His campaign his 100% built on saying I'll make america strong militarily and dishing the Obama campaign - is this how a president behaves? Even Bush hasn't supported McCain.
McCain is an old man who will look after the old mens clubs of Washington. He can't debate, he can't think for himself and he can't hold his nerve - he ain't no president.
America take your head out of the sand, sort out these disastrous politicians, your country is crumbling. The rest of the world would like to stop mocking you and have your leadership
Posted by: Bill | October 15, 2008 7:11 PM
If race is not an issue why do polls show that 92% of blacks are voting for Obama? Please someone, prove me wrong !!!
Posted by: Kader | October 20, 2008 7:43 PM
Who can really change the current economic situation in the US? McCain? Obama?
The truth is that nobody can. But who is more honest about bringing change? McCain? Obama?
Well, as an outsider and a person who cannot elect in the US elections, I just look at facts:
- McCain was only nominated because he wrapped himself around Bush. Not because he was the better man. There were other people more qualified than him. What would McCain do that Bush hasn't already done? Legalize torture? oh that's already done. Start a new war? Yes, that could be. Maybe in an exterem case, divide the country even more.
- Obama was nominated because he actually is qualified. I know Hilery was qualified too. but looking at the track records, Hilery has been changing directions based on the political situation. Obama defintely has the eduction and qualification for the job. Can he bring change though? Probably not as much as he wants to. But I think he will unite americans, if nothing else.
By the way, can you imagine Sarah Palin as president? Sad.........
Posted by: ringo | October 27, 2008 3:30 PM
In the race to the moment of truth people are still deciding who to
vote for as the next most influential person in the world.
In order to make the decision easier, a dutch company called
Kieskompas has developed the Electoral Compass. This voting advice
application is one of a kind. All the important issues are embedded in
the application that makes it easy to see where you fit in the
political compass. To what extent are you progressive (social liberal)
or traditional (social conservative) or left or right in economical
terms. And which candidate do you relate to the most.
If you haven't decided who to vote for than take the test.
www.electoralcompass.com
Posted by: hana | November 4, 2008 6:48 AM