On Election Night, Their Maps Show the Lay of the Land

Kornacki is cartoon-ish in a Paddy Chayefsky kind of way. The MSNBC decision to shoot every appearance of his at the “big board” with the constantly un-steady camera makes him seem like more of a bafoon. I find his frantic antics disconcerting and jarring, but as we know all too well, TV makes stars of the most unlikely people.

Sigh... I guess I'm a bad American. When I get home from work tonight I'll walk my dog, make dinner, enjoy a cocktail in the quiet of my backyard, then watch something on Netflix. Bedtime is 10:00. I'm okay learning the results the next day.

As a geography major, maps are always the stars. I don't understand why there aren't more maps presented as a part of everyday news stories. They are so informative. We need more maps all the time!

Watching Steve Kornacki's enjoyment of and passion for his work, is 80% of the fun. The rest is very informative.

Who picked the colors for the parties? Why are Republicans red and why are Democrats blue? Why not use new colors like orange for Republicans and green for Democrats. Spice up the maps a little.

I'll keep an eye on the various boards but truth be known,never have I more looked forward to an end of an election process. If the results were to bring some peace to our political world, it would be welcomed with open arms. But that won't be the case. Sad, sad,sad!

One nagging question: Why must the air talent presenting such sophisticated political cartography wave their arms around and generally behave like goofball TV weathermen from days of yore?

I feel a moral obligation to watch the coverage on CNN because of the slander and libel inflicted on it by Trump. Conversely, Fox could have the coolest-looking maps, but that network serves as Trump’s propaganda department and has forfeited any claim to fact-based journalism. Maybe the best idea is just to go to bed early. If I had done that two years ago at least I would have gotten one last obliviously restful night.

It's a long night when you're watching election results in the UK. The first results from the US start coming in around 1am and I think the 2016 election was finally called around 7am. We have paper ballots here so UK votes are hand counted as soon as the polls close; again, results come in through the night and the early morning. I quite enjoy the CNN's Magic Wall, the BBC's illuminated floor map of the UK, the flashing lights and graphics, and all the other electronic bells and whistles that light up an election night. How on earth would we stay awake otherwise?! As we're talking about US elections here, I find the Magic Wall's breakdown of statewide results by country quite fascinating and educational, and John King's mastery of the information is a pleasure to watch. Looking forward to tonight.

Journalists everywhere, please note: you need to stop leading with 'Democrats are poised to win... etc. etc.' Instead lead with 'we're potentially behind in many states' or people just wont show up, assuming we've got this. Rally people by saying we need them out and we are behind. Being behind likely strengthens our turnout and it's also just as true and suggesting we are ahead.

And how are these maps any different than a whole bunch of websites that show the same thing, in more interesting versions.

I can not wait to watch Steve Kornacki tomorrow. I marvel at the knowledge this guy has on each country and his on-the-fly math. For political junkies like me, he has best color commentary and game day coverage.

I hate the maps and the circus graphics! Just the numbers please.

Do not pay attention to the man behind the curtain. Just vote.

I’m surprised these maps don’t have voice activation. Some of the clicks are likely superfluous.

The holographic projections and animations eye candy represent acres of empty scrub grass as equivalent to densely populated urban blocks in major cities. Nancy Pelosi's district has more people than the whole state of Wyoming, but on national maps those 3/4 million Californians are lucky to get two pixels. Hopefully the broadcasters will sit on their touchscreen tap-and-swipe laurels and finally pay some attention to accurate graphical representation of votes, and not acreage. Such maps aren't pretty, they aren't useful for planning vacations or teaching geography, but they do give a much more accurate picture of how the American majority at large is voting, even as many of us are trapped in the bottom 40% of a district gerrymandered to ensure rule by minority. A couple of great examples from past elections: https://xkcd.com/1939/ https://www.businessinsider.com/2016-election-results-maps-population-adjusted-cartogram-2016-11

John King has been my standby on election night for as long as I can remember (2010? 2008?) His groundedness is reassuring, even though he delivered a sorrowful night in 2016.

Getting my inner Kornacki in gear!

GIS maps can be manipulated by displaying the data in different ways. unless you understand this, maps can appear to "lie".

Use of red and blue maps always make it look good for the republicans. The networks should find some neutral way of indicating how many seats are going to the parties. Not how big out the districts are. This is just more of giving the rural states extra clout in the electoral college. It should be resisted.

All this folderol elevates the horse race aspect of modern politics to a level of a video game or pinball machine. Completely absent is any idea what the winners (or losers) actually stand for or believe in. On these digital entertainment screens, all you will see - fleetingly at best — is a zip-zap blizzard of numbers and very little, if anything, about who America just voted in to office, or out.

The bar for competence in all of the network map whisperers is actually pretty low. They consistently mis-state and misrepresent the data as if it is a horse race. Here's a hint: once the polls are closed the votes have all been cast - it is a matter of counting votes not some kind of ongoing dynamic struggle. Also, none of these folks seem to consistently parse the numbers, in terms of both absolute number of votes and percentage of total votes cast in an accurate or precise way. On the up side, it does give me a chance to do a lot of arithmetic in my head, just to check and evaluate the "news" that is being peddled.