Politics

It's not quite the National Data Agency I envisioned earlier this year, but Data.gov is now live. It's a laudable effort, and there is quite a bit of data there, but it's still very labor-intensive to get the data sets and convert them into usable formats. But it's becoming clear that data needs to be shared, and that access to government data will soon be regarded as much as an inherent part of a democracy as free elections.

President Obama promises a more responsible and accountable government that openly shares information with its people. This includes publishing executive orders and laws before they are signed, so everybody can comment. But it also needs to include the data decisions are based on. An information society needs its data to be available and accessible to make informed decisions – just like its leaders.

I always wondered how much those swing states actually swing. So I looked at the results of presidential elections over the last 100 years, and it's not easy to determine which states actually are swing states from just looking at their history. Rather, there seems to be a pattern of relative stability for a few election cycles, and then big, sweeping wins for one side.

A story is making the rounds recently that the Obama campaign has received many contributions with "odd" amounts (i.e., not whole dollars), which is supposedly proof that Obama was being funded by foreign money. Here is a quick look at the data, which shows some interesting patterns, but no evidence of foreign intervention.

A few days ago, I looked at how the electoral college system amplifies the lead of the strongest candidate in a US presidential election. The way I made the chart (with the help of PhotoShop) created some interesting reactions, and finally led me to what I consider the best way to do it (using stacked bar charts). I also want to respond to a few comments about the kind of chart used and why I think it is the most effective way to show what it does.

The Electoral College is a key aspect of the US presidential elections. Its mechanics and distribution of electors are crucial for presidential campaigns and determine the so-called battleground states – and possibly also distort the will of the people. I was interested this last effect, so I did a little analysis.

Would McCain be the oldest US President? Would Obama be the youngest? Who was the youngest president? Were presidents younger in the past or older? What is the highest number of years a former president lived after leaving office? Who served the longest? Whose term was the shortest? The interactive visualization below lets you answer these and a few other questions.