What are the sources of your data? How accurate is it?

All sources on this web site come from original documentation. For county results, I rely on those provided by the office of the Secretary of State, both online and through the state archives. For precinct results, information is gathered from county web sites and/or official documentation supplied by the counties. I can't personally vouch for the integrity of the data. Unfortunately, even certified election results sometimes contain errors. However, I can promise that the Washington State Geopolitical Almanac (WSGA) is based on verified, original-source data and represents the most accurate reproduction of state election results.

Can I use your data/maps for my school project?

For academic purposes (essays, reports, etc.), my direct permission is not required. Please use the citation below in your work.

Johnstone-Anderson, Benjamin. Washington State Geopolitical Atlas. http://wa.uselectionatlas.org/ (date).

Can I use your data/maps for my publication or other commercial project?

Please email me, using the link on the bar above, to obtain copyright permission to use any part of the site for a commercial publication or project.

The colors are wrong!

I'll re-produce Dave Leip's answer on this matter:

"Elephants have a blue hue and donkeys have a red hue :) (Actually, as a visitor pointed out, elephants are actually gray - but they appear to look more blue than red :) Red and blue are chosen for the maps because they both are primary colors and because they both are incorporated in the flag. The choice of which party is represented by which color was somewhat arbitrary. I was perhaps influenced by maps that I had seen in the distant past (I still remember the solid blue field of Ronald Reagan's re-election in my hometown newspaper in 1984 - I was 14 at the time). Also, internationally, red typically represents parties on the left side of the political spectrum, i.e. the Democrats here in the U.S."

Do you know of a similar site that has the results for U.S Congressional races or Governor races? Will you build a site that covers the Congressional or Governor election results?

It would be wonderful to have a similar site that covers election results for these other races. At this time, I do not know of such a site. As for building one, whoa... my social life is already poor. If you are willing to volunteer to help with such a project, I am willing to host and provide the outline and navigation. However, I'll delegate the creation of the data pages to volunteers.

Do you have plans to include state legislative races in the future?

Not at the current time. If I find a feasible way of presenting them graphically, and breaking down their results, I may. However, my current focus will remain elsewhere.

I searched for my precinct, and it has an asterisk, two asterisks, or "+ Consolidated*" next to it. What does this mean?

Unfortunately, Washington counties have switched to a new elections-reporting system that handles the matter of voter privacy somewhat awkwardly. Precincts are "tucked into" larger ones to protect voters' choices in precincts where there are few voters. The result is that disparate precincts sometimes get combined arbitrarily, even if they lack even slight geographical proximity. Precincts "emptied" by consolidation are marked with a single asterisk (*). Precincts where only absentee ballots are shown, and the rest are consolidated, are marked with two (**). Precincts which have had voters from disparate precincts consolidated into them are marked "+ Consolidated*". In some cases, consolidated results are not combined into a pre-existing precinct. In this case, check the end of the county results for a precinct name beginning with "Consolidated."

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