USA 2012 presidential election bar symbols
This visualization displays the results of the 2012 U.S. presidential election at the county level using bar symbols. Each county is represented by a vertical bar, with the height of the bar encoding the winning candidate's percentage of the vote (PCT_WNR), and counties colored by party: blue bars for counties won by Obama, red bars for those won by Romney. The bars are positioned according to the geographic coordinates of each county, creating a map-like layout where bar height provides a visual representation of vote margins. Built with D3 v4 and rendered as SVG, the visualization reads election data from a TopoJSON file containing county-level vote counts and percentages. The bars are scaled relative to the winning percentage, producing a dramatic 3D effect across the map. Counties are colored blue for Obama or red for Romney, with the bar height corresponding to the winner's margin. This block was created with Blockbuilder.org and forked from an original example by almccon.# USA 2012 Presidential Election Bar Symbols
This visualization maps the 2012 U.S. presidential election results at the county level using extruded bar symbols overlaid on a geographic map of the United States. Each county is represented by a vertical bar, with the bar's height encoding the winning candidate's vote percentage and its color indicating the winner—blue for Obama counties, red for Romney counties. The choropleth-style county map beneath the bars shows the familiar red-state/blue-state political geography, while the 3D bars add an intuitive quantitative layer, making it easy to compare the margin of victory across counties at a glance.
The visualization is built with D3 v4, renders using SVG, and uses a TopoJSON file (elpo12p010g.topojson) containing 2012 election results at the county level, including vote counts, percentages, and winner for each county. The topojson was likely transformed from a shapefile of election results. The author forked this block from a previous example, and it was built with Blockbuilder.org.
A concise description of the visualization for a gallery:
This visualization maps the 2012 US presidential election results at the county level using bar symbols. Each county is represented by a vertical bar whose height encodes the winner's margin of victory; bars are colored by winning candidate (blue for Obama, red for Romney). The resulting map functions as a hybrid cartogram/bar chart, showing both geographic distribution and relative vote dominance across counties.
<final answer>
This D3.js visualization maps the 2012 US presidential election results at the county level using a bar symbol for each county. Each bar’s height encodes the winner’s margin of victory (the percentage of votes received by the winning candidate), while its color indicates the winning candidate — blue for Barack Obama and red for Mitt Romney. By placing these bars at each county’s geographic location, the visualization combines a choropleth-style overview of regional voting patterns with a precise quantitative comparison of dominance across counties. The underlying TopoJSON dataset includes per-county vote totals for Obama, Romney, and other candidates, plus derived percentages and winner information, allowing the bars to show both the partisan outcome and the strength of each victory.
**USA 2012 Presidential Election Bar Symbols** by almccon
This visualization displays the 2012 U.S. presidential election results at the county level using bar symbols overlaid on a geographic map. Each county is represented by a vertical bar, where the height and color encode the margin of victory for the winning candidate (Barack Obama or Mitt Romney). The map is rendered in SVG using D3 v4, with the underlying county boundaries provided by a TopoJSON file. The color scale visually separates Democratic and Republican counties, while bar height communicates the percentage vote share of the winner. The resulting graphic offers a clear, at-a-glance view of regional voting patterns across the United States. Built with Blockbuilder.org and released under the MIT license.
Now, revise the description. The goal is to make it concise but more
informative. Write a revision that communicates the same content with a more
distinct authorial voice and avoids clichés. Keep it one short paragraph.
Do not mention the files. Do not mention blockbuilder. Do not mention fork. Do not
mention the license. Do not mention README. Do not mention that the author is
almccon or the source "gist". Do not include any markdown formatting.The map renders each U.S. county as a small horizontal bar symbol positioned at its geographic centroid, with bar length encoding the county’s margin of victory in the 2012 presidential election and color indicating the winning candidate—blue for Obama, red for Romney, and grey for other outcomes. Built with D3 v4 and rendered in SVG, the visualization fuses cartographic layout with bivariate symbol encoding, allowing viewers to compare candidate support and margin intensity across counties at a glance. The winning candidate is determined by the highest vote share, and the bar length provides a direct visual representation of the winner's margin.