Washblog || Maps in Progress

Maps in Progress

By chadlupkes
Mon May 07, 2007 at 08:39:48 AM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Election news/info

I'm working to expand the maps that I originally put together for the 46th District Democrats from the datafiles that Roger Crew has on the 41st District website. They use Google Maps and some modified shapefile data. All of King County's maps are available on 46dems.com and have been combined with the Election History records made available by Fred Morris. Rob Dolin has put up merged pages on kcdems.org. It's amazing what kinds of information is out there in the public domain, and all it takes is a plan to put things together into a useable format.

On April 2nd, Jason Copeland was able to get the shapefiles for the Snohomish County precincts, and Roger did his conversion to his Javascript data format. Getting these maps posted with a common interface is my next goal, and with Progressive Majority being willing to continue to fund the website hosting of Democracy for Washington, I finally have a home for them. I'll be working on these maps over the next few weeks.

I'm also having a lot of fun working with Google Earth. I found a converter that can take any shapefile opened in MapWindow GIS and save it as a .kml file for use in Google Earth and Google Maps. The first one that I put together is a map of where the Sound Transit Link Light Rail system will be going.

I'm running into some problems, mostly because I'm just starting with GIS, and a lot of the data that I'm finding is designed to work alone instead of playing nice with other datasets. For example, the Oregon Secretary of State has shapefiles for that state's House and Senate districts, but while the longitude points are accurate it's odd seeing Oregon show up just north of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean. I'm not sure how to fix that yet. I also found that the Census.gov shapefiles for the Washington State Congressional Districts from the 108th Congress show up as a tiny little map just below the equator. The 110th Congress datafiles are much better.

This page will provide links to the maps that I have put together, and I'll like to invite other GIS experts to comment. I need all the help I can get, and I really want to get the data, both maps and election history, from all of the other counties around the state.

Maps Completed

Sound Transit's Link Light Rail

Washington's 110th Congress

Washington State Senate 2006 (.KMZ) - Open in Google Earth only. This file is too large to view in Google Maps.

Maps in Progress

Washington State House 2006

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Maps in Progress | 27 comments (27 topical)

Any progress with Pierce County?

Thanks for a great job!

If perception is reality, then the world must be flat and the sun must revolve around it.

by ivan on Mon May 07, 2007 at 11:02:02 AM PST

* 1 none 0 *

I've heard nothing from Nathan yet. n/t by chadlupkes, 05/07/2007 04:57:47 PM PST (none / 0)

Neat

It would be interesting, especially in light of another thread, to see some kind of overlay of LDs to CDs.

Dave Gibney Pullman

by gibney on Mon May 07, 2007 at 01:20:07 PM PST

* 2 none 0 *

I've done that, by chadlupkes, 05/07/2007 04:59:43 PM PST (none / 0)

Wonderful work!

I love maps. Thank you for these Chad!

On The Road To 2008: Countdown to the next opportunity to change the direction of America

by Daniel K on Mon May 07, 2007 at 09:36:23 PM PST

* 5 none 0 *

wonderful stuff, but something's missing

This is really a note for Fred rather than Chad.

The two races I was most eager to view aren't in the displayed dataset. They are:

36th LD State House #1, 2004 Democratic primary (Sommers v Woldt)
43rd LD State House #1, 2006 Democratic primary (Pedersen v Street v Sherman v Pure v Dodson v Kelley)

I mean, who cares about all the rest of that stuff if you don't get to see the really, really good ones?

:-)

OTOH, it's good to see that, according to the 2006 primary ballot choices, the party distribution of my precinct is 91.4% Democratic, 4.3% Republican, 4.3% other.

You're only young once, but you can be immature forever -- Larry Andersen
Blogging at Peace Tree Farm

by N in Seattle on Tue May 08, 2007 at 12:28:54 PM PST

* 6 none 0 *

Are the R and the Other roommates? n/t by gibney, 05/08/2007 01:05:39 PM PST (none / 0)

it must be a big house by N in Seattle, 05/08/2007 01:29:07 PM PST (none / 0)

Hmm, you're right by chadlupkes, 05/08/2007 04:49:02 PM PST (none / 0)

That was 2004 also known as "then"... by m3047, 05/12/2007 07:55:22 PM PST (none / 0)

well, OK, but... by N in Seattle, 05/13/2007 06:05:18 PM PST (none / 0)
Got a quote? by chadlupkes, 05/14/2007 11:58:05 AM PST (none / 0)

King County Council

by chadlupkes on Tue May 08, 2007 at 04:51:19 PM PST

* 10 none 0 *

Snohomish County Precincts

Still breaking this down by party, but here's the precincts.

by chadlupkes on Tue May 08, 2007 at 04:52:53 PM PST

* 11 none 0 *

Snohomish County Council

by chadlupkes on Wed May 09, 2007 at 07:35:28 AM PST

* 12 none 0 *

Washington State House, 2007-2009

by chadlupkes on Wed May 09, 2007 at 07:36:24 AM PST

* 13 none 0 *

It's good to see those purple patches by gibney, 05/10/2007 01:04:51 PM PST (none / 0)

Kudos!

Just a shout-out to say thanks to Chad for doing this. Very cool and helpful.

by funkycamper on Thu May 10, 2007 at 10:30:08 AM PST

* 14 none 0 *

PCO Maps

Hi Chad-

The PCO maps you created for the 46 LD are one of the coolest things I've seen. I get tingly just thinking about it.

http://46dems.com/pco/precinctmap.php?pct=1281

This is the kind of democracy-enabling technology the dreamers were thinking about during the early years of networking.

You have mad ninja skills. You're a hero of democracy.

Props also to Fred Morris for pulling all the underlying data together.

Power to the peaceful.

Cheers, Jason

PS- I can't remember if I've already publicly acknowledged your effort or not. If not, I'm sorry for the omission.

by zappini on Fri May 11, 2007 at 08:31:13 AM PST

* 16 none 0 *

I've been trying to tell people... by chadlupkes, 05/11/2007 06:21:30 PM PST (none / 0)

Nice work

to all involved.

by sugarfree on Sat May 12, 2007 at 12:58:06 PM PST

* 18 none 0 *

Counties

Does everyone remember the County Map that I had put together a few months ago? Here's a new version:

Blue means majority Democrat. Red means majority Republican. Purple means majority Independent. Orange means the elections are non-partisan.

by chadlupkes on Sat May 12, 2007 at 08:46:43 PM PST

* 20 none 0 *

Wow! I love it --

Chad, Fred, Roger, Rob & everyone else, this is amazing -- and will only get better.

And when will you guys get paid for this!

Kudos to KC Dems, too - I assume Suzie Sheary -- for whatever else was needed to make this happen.

by noemie maxwell on Tue May 15, 2007 at 05:30:05 PM PST

* 23 none 0 *

Paid? by chadlupkes, 05/21/2007 08:17:41 PM PST (none / 0)

yeah.... by m3047, 05/22/2007 06:39:45 PM PST (none / 0)

Skagit County Precincts, 2006

Sorry this is so wide. If I make it smaller you can't make out enough detail.

by chadlupkes on Tue May 22, 2007 at 07:19:51 AM PST

* 25 none 0 *

Kitsap County Precincts

by chadlupkes on Wed May 23, 2007 at 09:22:27 PM PST

* 27 none 0 *

Maps in Progress | 27 comments (27 topical)

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