Saturday, September 07, 2013

Live Australian Election Maps


ABC are using Google Maps as part of their live online reporting of the Australian election results. Results are appearing on the map as they are announced in the different electoral seats.

The map includes options to view the current party holding each seat, ABC's predications in each seat and to view which seats have changed hands.


Google has created their own Live Election Map. Electoral seats are being shaded on the map as the results come in and a running total of the seats won by each party is displayed in the map sidebar.

The map also allows you to select your local area to view the live count in your electorate and keep track of news stories as they break.


The Guardian's Australian Election Results 2013 map is taking a different approach. Because of the huge variations in the size of Australian electorates shading the map to show the results for each party can be visually confusing. The coalition tend to perform better in the geographically larger seats - resulting in maps looking largely blue even if the other parties are performing better than the coalition.

The Guardian's map therefore shows all the electorates as circles sized by population and loosely tied to their geographic location. However The Guardian map seems to show the current incumbent in each seat and is updating each seat as the results are announced. This introduces a different problem to the map as it is not clear in each seat whether the map is showing the result from the 2013 election or the current incumbent from the 2010 election (although this problem will obviously be resolved when all the seats have announced).

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