There has been a lot of complaints from the Republicans about how their big red states seem to dwarf many of the little blue states, and yet those blue states have more voice in the election than they do.
This map is a combination of the following stuff:
- County by county breakdown
overlaid with
- Gradient shading depending on the population in the county
It's a really fascinating look at why the east and west costs dominate the paler inner states. You can pick out major cities, but there are also some surprises, like this medium depth band of blue that starts in Mississippi and runs through the heart of Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, culminating in Research Triangle in NC and VA. That, it seems, is (very roughly) the I-85 corridor, which has a plethora of two things: universities and military bases. Atlanta is a deep, intense blue, and its surrounding counties are a deep, intense red - a very visible artifact of white flight from the 60s and 70s.