For a mapping assignment, we were asked to make an election story map.
We felt the most compelling story, with regards to the 2016 election, was that of voter apathy.
According to an article on Brilliant Maps, Only 8 states (and DC),
had high enough voter turnouts to actually elect a presidential candidate.
In short—if 'Did Not Vote' had run, they would have won by a landslide.
This demonstrates how large an impact that voter turnout has on the
results of a US Presidential election.
Check out our map below to learn which age groups and precincts had the largest numbers of non-voters.
We use a bivariate choropleth map to show election results by county, and a mapping technique
called value-by-alpha (VBA) to adjust the color intensity based on the number of non-voters.
The color (hue) shows the election result, and the more intense colors represent precincts
with the highest number of laggards and layabouts. The slider lets you see results by age
bracket so that you can see which generation's apathy had the largest impact.