44 How (not) to visualize American elections

Daniel de Castro

Every two years since 1789, the American political media has faced the problem of how to visually convey the numbers that describe an election. While there are effective statewide election visualizations which make use of best practices to inform their audiences of the true number, distribution, and effect of the votes cast, today’s most common visualization technique employs size and color to confuse or even intentionally mislead its audience about the balance of power. Here is my guide of the dos and don’ts of visualizing the American electoral system.