Voting America
Encyclopedia
Voting America: United States Politics, 1840-2008 is a digital history
project created by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond
. Voting America analyzes data from Presidential elections
, both at the state and county level. The project presents the voting data in a variety of cinematic and interactive maps, many with accompanying videos that provide analysis and commentary by several experts. In addition to the maps, the creators of the project include a short history of political mapping in America.
’s National Historical Geographic Information System
project.
The first type of cinematic maps displays the change of voting data over time beginning in 1840 and ending in 2008. These maps include analysis of voting at the state level, county level, raw number of votes, percentage of votes cast by party, margins of victory, and election turnout.
The second group of cinematic maps analyzes voting data for individual presidential elections from 1840 to 2008. Instead of showing change over time, these cinematic maps play a series of maps for the selected election showing analysis of voting at the state level, county level, raw number of votes, percentage of votes cast by party, margins of victory, and election turnout.
The third group of cinematic maps depicts population statistics of the United States of America for each election from 1840 to 2008. The maps that can be viewed are maps of the African American population, White population, and both African American and White populations.
The second feature involves collaboration with Google. The project made its maps since 1980 available through Google Earth and Google Maps, again allowing a user to explore the data on her or his own.
. A historian of America in the nineteenth-century, he has also developed Texas Slavery Project and the History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research in addition to co-editing two books.
Nathaniel Ayers works at the Digital Scholarship Lab as a programmer analyst. He created the online interface in addition to developing Voting America’s depictions of electoral data.
Scott Nesbit is the associate director of the Digital Scholarship Lab. On Voting America, he served as a historical consultant, helping to create the history of political maps for the project.
Amanda Kleintop is a history major at the University of Richmond
and research intern for the Digital Scholarship Lab making the project mapping’s dataset of state-level data.
Edward L. Ayers
is a digital historian and the president of the University of Richmond. He was the consulting editor of Voting America.
Jerome M. Clubb, William H. Flanigan and Nacny H. Zingale’s study “Electoral Data for Counties in the United States: Presidential and Congressional races, 1840-1972,” provided data for 1840 to 1972. Polidata.org provided the data and the license for the datasets of the Presidential elections from 1976 to 2004.
Digital history
Digital history is the use of digital media and tools for historical practice, presentation, analysis, and research. It is a branch of the Digital Humanities and an outgrowth of Quantitative history, Cliometrics, and History and Computing...
project created by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond
University of Richmond
The University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...
. Voting America analyzes data from Presidential elections
United States presidential election
Elections for President and Vice President of the United States are indirect elections in which voters cast ballots for a slate of electors of the U.S. Electoral College, who in turn directly elect the President and Vice President...
, both at the state and county level. The project presents the voting data in a variety of cinematic and interactive maps, many with accompanying videos that provide analysis and commentary by several experts. In addition to the maps, the creators of the project include a short history of political mapping in America.
Cinematic
Voting America has three types of cinematic maps. The maps were developed with ArcGIS and Adobe AfterEffects with data supplied by the University of MinnesotaUniversity of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
’s National Historical Geographic Information System
National Historical Geographic Information System
The National Historical Geographic Information System is a historical GIS project to create and freely disseminate a database incorporating all available aggregate census information for the United States between 1790 and 2000...
project.
The first type of cinematic maps displays the change of voting data over time beginning in 1840 and ending in 2008. These maps include analysis of voting at the state level, county level, raw number of votes, percentage of votes cast by party, margins of victory, and election turnout.
The second group of cinematic maps analyzes voting data for individual presidential elections from 1840 to 2008. Instead of showing change over time, these cinematic maps play a series of maps for the selected election showing analysis of voting at the state level, county level, raw number of votes, percentage of votes cast by party, margins of victory, and election turnout.
The third group of cinematic maps depicts population statistics of the United States of America for each election from 1840 to 2008. The maps that can be viewed are maps of the African American population, White population, and both African American and White populations.
Interactive
Voting America has two interactive features. The first feature allows the user to create his or her own maps with the data from the presidential elections. The maps were created with the help of GroundWorkDesign.The second feature involves collaboration with Google. The project made its maps since 1980 available through Google Earth and Google Maps, again allowing a user to explore the data on her or his own.
Developers
Andrew J. Torget led the development of Voting America as the director of the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of RichmondUniversity of Richmond
The University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...
. A historian of America in the nineteenth-century, he has also developed Texas Slavery Project and the History Engine: Tools for Collaborative Education and Research in addition to co-editing two books.
Nathaniel Ayers works at the Digital Scholarship Lab as a programmer analyst. He created the online interface in addition to developing Voting America’s depictions of electoral data.
Scott Nesbit is the associate director of the Digital Scholarship Lab. On Voting America, he served as a historical consultant, helping to create the history of political maps for the project.
Amanda Kleintop is a history major at the University of Richmond
University of Richmond
The University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...
and research intern for the Digital Scholarship Lab making the project mapping’s dataset of state-level data.
Edward L. Ayers
Edward L. Ayers
Edward Lynn Ayers is an American historian. He is the current president of the University of Richmond, having served in this capacity since July 1, 2007. Prior to his appointment, he had been on the faculty of the University of Virginia since 1980, most recently as the Buckner W. Clay Dean of the...
is a digital historian and the president of the University of Richmond. He was the consulting editor of Voting America.
Jerome M. Clubb, William H. Flanigan and Nacny H. Zingale’s study “Electoral Data for Counties in the United States: Presidential and Congressional races, 1840-1972,” provided data for 1840 to 1972. Polidata.org provided the data and the license for the datasets of the Presidential elections from 1976 to 2004.