My point is the claim that these maps are being used to trick people, is exaggerated. Why? Because it's rare that the popular vote tally is not shown, and most people are aware of population density.
I think that having as many different views as possible on the data is a great thing, and the maps in this article are excellent. However, because of the Electoral College, the standard map is not useless, and in fact shows you something no other map can - where a state is located along with how it voted in the election, projection distortions notwithstanding.
Quit possibly. But pushing the hypothetical further: simply depriving ignorant people of the vote, aside from possible justice issues, would certainly result in social instability. (not to mention the undoubtable drag on the economy that ignorance represents)
Better would be to see to it that everyone knows where New York is. And better still that everyone were indeed well informed enough not to be deluded by the map style we're talking about.
Given, unfortunately, that we do live in a world with a fair level of ignorance, we should probably take that into account when presenting information. Certainly there are cynical people who are all too aware of how to do so for negative ends. Or, as I think in this case, designers quickly putting together a pretty graphic for TV simply by following a graphic formula that isn't remotely the best.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...
My point is the claim that these maps are being used to trick people, is exaggerated. Why? Because it's rare that the popular vote tally is not shown, and most people are aware of population density.
I think that having as many different views as possible on the data is a great thing, and the maps in this article are excellent. However, because of the Electoral College, the standard map is not useless, and in fact shows you something no other map can - where a state is located along with how it voted in the election, projection distortions notwithstanding.