An extremely detailed map of the 2024 election
What happened?
What was the precinct-level vote in 2024?
Click here: Unlocked NYT article
The New York Times makes this report available.
My main purpose in today's post is to remind readers of an extraordinary internet tool, these precinct-level maps. The second is to praise and thank The New York Times.
The news business is in trouble. Ad revenue is way down, swallowed up by Meta, Google, and other aggregators who rework the content created by others and then micro-target it to customers, collecting the majority of the potential ad revenue. Newspapers will survive by persuading readers to buy subscriptions to pay the cost of reporters talking to news sources, writing it up, getting it edited and distributed. The New York Times has about 11.5 million subscribers, a majority of whom are digital-only. Real news is expensive. Donald Trump calls the newspaper "the failing New York Times." The U.S. is better off if its news institutions survive. I subscribe, which is why I can share this article -- one of the benefits of being a subscriber.
Some states and counties are slow to upload data, but readers in my home country and in most battleground states can see what happened in 2024, and with a click compare it to the 2020 election. Jackson County, Oregon is one of the places with a full data upload.
Clicking the full map brings the detail into closer focus with detail down to the precinct level, showing how powerful is the "neighborhood effect." Ashland, Oregon is a college town, but its politics and culture are better understood as a place of prosperous, well-educated people seeking a simpatico environment that emphasises livability. One sees pedestrian shoppers and tourists here. Real estate prices are 30 percent higher than the county median. Here is a precinct on a hillside with views across the valley to the east. The other Ashland precincts have similar voting results.
Another, smaller haven of people seeking a village atmosphere of history and culture is the small town of Jacksonville. This is an old gold rush village boom-town four miles west of Medford. One sees pedestrians here, too.
Jackson County as a whole voted for Trump. Precincts outside of city limits are overwhelmingly red. My farm is eight miles from Medford and five miles from Central Point. My general assumption is that every single male I see doing agricultural work, or in an agricultural context anywhere near my farm, is a Trump supporter. I won’t be far wrong.
To the east of my farm, in a mixed exurban/industrial area, is the area that most benefits from the social programs supported by Democrats. It is among the reddest parts of the county. White City is an unincorporated but urbanized area. It has a concentration of poverty, disability, drug and alcohol services. The precincts surrounding it voted for Trump 77- 21 percent, 75-22 percent, and 76-21 percent. MAGA voters want something other than the social safety-net Ashland Democrats support. They use it. They don't value it.
The maps encourage exploration of border-town precincts near Mexico, battleground state precincts, and old neighborhoods in one’s own life. The presumption many readers will have, that Cambridge, Massachusetts is bright blue, is correct. That is Harvard Yard in the center of the image:
Find your own neighborhood. Explore. It is made possible because great newspapers still exist, and they still exist because subscribers still exist.
Here are some additional links:
2020 election map: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/upshot/2020-election-map.html
2016 election map
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html
Who do we have to thank that Jackson County data are available to the Times, promptly, transparently and in detail? Our elected, non-partisan County Clerk Chris Walker. Shout-out to Chris.
I hope people understand how close some communities, including 100K population communities like Medford and Bend, are to being without any local news coverage. Medford's Rogue Valley Times at two mailed papers each week, and the Bend Bulletin, now at, I think, one paper each week, are both owned by a company that seems to think we are happy with human interest stories from around the region, one already tired local story, and some sports. We get from them no real local news focus. The Grants Pass Courier does a pretty good job covering Josephine County, but it's early commitment to add Jackson County when our Mail Tribune folded hasn't materialized. The on-line Ashland News is doing a better job of local reporting than the RVT.
I understand that newspapers are struggling to survive, and I think those of us who continue to support them by subscribing are doing what we think is right. I'm afraid though, that they are going to fail, probably within just a year or two. Maybe it's time to really embrace the on-line model, like Ashland News, to try to support true local reporting.
For regional news, I have given up on the Oregonian and I get it from various on-line sources, and for national and beyond news I think the digital NYT is worthwhile. The radio offers some national news through NPR whose funding is now endangered. I don't watch TV, so maybe local stations also have a place in the mix that I am missing.
You might want to think about supporting a local on-line effort when one shows up in your area.