Electoral geography

The purpose of the analysis is to identify and understand driving factors and the electoral characteristics of territories in a broad and integrative manner.

[3] The territorial unit with boundary distinctions in representative elections is commonly termed the constituency, district, or precinct, and serves as both a region for the tabulation and study of the electoral result.

These boundaries are defined in various methods, which are unique to each state, and can cause alterations or skewing of aggregate vote results and by extension the true decision of the electorate.

Electoral geographers require the knowledge of the local and statewide laws and procedures for conducting elections, though it has been claimed that it is not within their purview to attempt to correct any observed flaws.

[2] The methods of election are critical to analyzing the results, as it is impossible to adequately assess the proportionality of representation or validity of an electoral outcome without understanding how votes are cast and counted.

Regardless of the means by which boundaries are drawn, including by non-partisan or independent governmental associations, bias in electoral regions can always be observed.

The United Kingdom serves as an example as the constituencies are established by a non-partisan commission and yet bias toward Labour has been observed in general elections since 1979.

Common alterations to election results caused by gerrymandering are: Malapportionment is unequal and disproportionate representation electoral systems with multiple constituencies.

Along with purely physical characteristics, distribution of economic resources, lines of communication, governmental and party platforms, and gender, ethnic, or class groups creates an interwoven fabric of people and opinion, which is accounted for in electoral analysis.

[1] These stimuli can come in the form of state-supplied information, local cultural norms, religious affiliations, economic opportunity, and media presentation of issues.

Electoral geography considers the way in which the physical characteristics of a territory directly affect the population and thus the election decision of these people.

[4] Regions which share large numbers of physical or demographic characteristics, or both as these two factors are related,[1] will demonstrate significant similarities in voting participation and patterns of outcome.

Gender, ethnic, and class disparity can cause voting that is related to shared background qualities and experience as opposed to political opinions.

The “neighborhood effect” is an observed altering of electoral results due to the tendency of people who are spatially close to vote similarly because of daily interactions.

These anomalies are attributed to the historical, economic, and cultural geographies which serve to override the territory traits that were used to predict the electoral results.

The spatial variations of support for particular policies are routinely mapped in order to pictorially represent the electoral geography of a territory, which can allow for the recognition of patterns of location.

The selection of mapping paradigms using color, patterning, brightness or darkness effects is employed in order to visually detail aspects and characteristics of interest in elections, such as voter participation, intensity of support, population density, and constituency boundaries which may not easily be noticed by considering words and numbers.

[5] This has been used to a wide degree and is thus readily acknowledged by United States citizens in the media and academic display of election results.

Human movement is an ongoing progress, which consistently redefines the distributions of policy preference and thus the associated election decisions.

[4] Electoral geography relies upon detailed and accurate mapping techniques with appropriate contextualization and background knowledge in order to successfully visualize and analyze the results of an election.

One phenomenon of territorial cleavages in electoral preferences in Russia is known as the "red belt" (compact located regions with high support for the Communist Party).

The electoral geography of the United States is a description of regional political differences, which in recent years has been popularized by the red and blue paradigm to pictorially represent Republican and Democratic Election results.