Rebekah Monson and Roshan Nebhrajani contributed to this post.
It’s been a week and lots of folks are still trying to make sense of this presidential election. We keep talking about red states and blue states, the rust-belt Americans and the urban elites.
But here’s a little secret: those red and blue lines aren’t quite that crisp. The country actually looks like a sea of purple. A few days ago, @EmmieMears tweeted out this great map that super simply illustrates that nuance:
Here’s an interactive version. We zoomed in on our home state, Florida — a swing state that was crucial to Donald Trump’s win. The traditional map of Florida looks like a sea of red with sparse blue rectangles scattered throughout.
But a more accurate map looks a little something like this:
Instead of visualizing a binary blue or red based on a simple majority, the map assigns different shades of purple to different proportions of Democratic-Republican votes.
No county is pure blue or pure red, which means there’s at least a few people who didn’t vote like you living right next door, who are your neighbors and friends.
Does this change your understanding of this election? How? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook.