nytimes.com Election Map Replica

My changes to the map were straightforward (I mean really, it’s the New York Times here and they know what they’re doing) but I do think that they improve upon the original map. Things like enlarging Alaska so that it is closer to its real area, darkening and enlarging the popular vote so that it is more prominent (as it is a valuable statistic), and labeling the states on the Eastern seaboard add valuable information in a simple way that I thought the original had not done an adequate job of conveying to the reader. I added pictures of the candidates, their full names, title in government and their parties which I think adds to the content of the map substantially- this is after all an important election in terms of race and adding pictures of the candidates makes visual reference to that. I thought formalizing their names and titles added a serious element that seems appropriate for the Times. In addition to these simple additions, I denoted the key battleground states vis a a vie yellow hatching and borders, hoping to draw attention to the states where the races would be closest and could ultimately be most important in deciding the election. In addition, I made more explicit the unique electoral vote splitting situation in Nebraska by also using a read and blue hatching fill and asterisk. Now, I’m assuming that this map improvement could still be capable of the same interactive features that it had online- showing previous elections, state by state break downs, etc. Adding more detailed voter information on the map template seemed like it would be too visually cluttered; the point of the map is to show which states went for which candidates- not to visually convey all available statistical information. If this were not the case then I might have added more information about states that went from red to blue or blue to red from the last election, or made a county by county breakdown and a red and blue scale. I hope my assumption is right and my improvements to the nytimes.com map are considered as such.