There has been a lot of talk about Barack Obama’s tax plan this political season. The biggest question seems to be, who will see their taxes increase? Well we decided to take a closer look at WHERE in the U.S. people will be most affected by the Obama’s tax increase.

First, to clarify, families with an income above $250,000 dollars would see their tax rates return the levels from the 1990’s. According to the Obama campaign, this tax increase will affect about 2% of the population.

So where are these people who earn $250,000? Are they from Republican or Democratic states? Are they concentrated or dispersed?

Since the US Census only provides data for incomes of $200,000 or more, I decided to look at house prices. An individual or family earning $250,000 a year could afford a home valued at about $1 million so we thought that, aside from the obvious margin of error, homes valued at $1 million or more would be a good indicator of who would be affected by Obama’s tax increase. The U.S. Census 2007 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates provides the number of $1 Million+ Owner Occupied Housing Units by state and county. After uploading that data to Finder!, we played around with some maps in Maker!and found some interesting patterns.

See the datasets (states, counties) and map.

Most of the states that had the most $1 Million + Homes were no surprise, however a few were unexpected. Take a look…the first map shows the number of $1 Million + Homes per state as well as 50 counties with the most $1 Million + Homes and the second shows just the counties have the highest number of $1 Million + Homes.

See the datasets (states, counties) and map.

It’s interesting that some of the states with the most homes only have one county that appears in the top 50 list. These counties, such as King County, WA, Maricopa County, AZ, Fulton County, GA, Hennepin County, MN, and Cook County, Il, have more than a third of all of the $1 Million + Homes in their state.

See the datasets (states, counties) and map.

So we know where the people are. Now, how might that affect the election?

Let’s take a look at the most current presidential election polls from USA Election Polls. This map shows that many of the states with the highest percent of $1 Million + Homes are also leaning toward Obama in this year’s election. In other words, the states that have the highest percent of residents that earn over $250,000 and therefore will be most affected by Obama’s tax increases are in states that are voting for Obama.

Of course, a few of those states are highly contested states including Florida, Virginia, and Colorado. Why is that? Well, its important to point out that the percent of million dollar home owners is only around 2% so they are not going to have a huge impact on an election. However, this demographic may be more likely to vote in an election than those earning less money.

See the datasets for states and polls.

The pattern that million dollar home owners tend to live in democratic areas, is also evident at the county level. This map shows the top 50 counties based on who they voted for in the 2004 presidential election. Of the 50 counties, 30 voted for Kerry and 16 voted for Bush. Most of those counties that voted for Bush are in Southern California, Texas, New Jersey, and Illinois. All but Texas voted for Kerry and are in no threat from turning red this year. Of course, taxes did not play as big a role in the election in 2004.

See the dataset and map.

So why is the McCain campaign making such a big issue of the Obama tax plan? Since it will affect mostly people in blue states, maybe they hope to change some minds there. However it seems that such a scenario is unlikely even though people who earn more money do tend to vote Republican. Exit polls from 2004 show that those who earned $50,000 or more voted Republican.

Perhaps the Obama tax plan, which claims it will give tax breaks to those earning less than $200,000, may persuade some of the 98% + of those in the red states who would qualify to vote for Obama. By appealing to the $200,000 earners, maybe Obama is attempting to raise the democratic appeal to income levels above $50,000. It will be interesting to see what happens on Tuesday, especially to see how the richest counties vote this time around.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Much has been made during the 2008 Presidential Campaign about the errors John McCain has made about geography. He made a reference to Czechoslovakia still existing and also said that the countries of Iraq and Pakistan border one another.

These are major world geography errors that McCain has been heavily criticized about, but he has been good about not making geographical errors about his own country. These errors belong to Barack Obama, the other candidate for President. Obama has on several occasions during the 08 Campaign made errors about geography throughout the U.S. including calling a city/state he was visiting by the wrong name. He has done this on three different occasions in Sunrise, FL, Sioux Falls, SD, and the state of Wyoming. He also was recorded saying that there were 57 states in the USA, that Kentucky was closer to Arkansas than Illinois, and referred to Brownsville, Texas as Brownville, Texas. The map below shows the locations of where Obama has made Geographical Gaffes. The map can be found on Maker! at this link: Obama’s Geographical Gaffes, USA, 2008 Campaign.

These mistakes were probable mere slips of the tongues or occurred from being tired while campaigning. Not much should be made from the errors in my opinion, but since my work deals with geography I must say I’m a bit saddened.

Popularity: 10% [?]

The upcoming election is becoming more interesting and dynamic every day. While the candidates contest, secure, or historically change battleground states, we have been updating datasets of the latest state by state polls to Finder!. Taking a look at these polls as they change over time, we can get an understanding as to how the public and the campaigns are interacting and how states are reacting to important events, such as the conventions, vice-presidential choices, the debates, and the economic crisis.

The image below shows the candidates’ lead in the polls from the end of August till now. It is interesting to watch some battleground states, such as Montana and Pennsylvania, become solidified while other contested states such as Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida change back and forth between candidates.

Check out this interactive map showing the latest changes in U.S. Election polls by state. The date on each map represents the date that the polls were updated and not necessarily the date of the polls for each state.

To see how this election map compares to 2004, here is a map of the state won by Bush and Kerry. You can see that many of the states that bush won are either contested or are supporting Obama in this election.

Also it’s not necessarily the number of states won but number of electoral votes. This map shows the states according to their electoral votes. Many of the contested states are the ones with more votes at stake.

It is important to remember, when looking at polls, that they are often inaccurate and sometimes even bias. Many times, misleading polls actually have the potential to sway the popular opinion of a candidate and can have an unfair effect on the outcome of an election.

The poll maps were made from datasets in Finder! collected from USA Election Polls, who collect the latest state by state poll results and post them on their website.

Those datasets can be found at the following links.

• October 20th Election Polls
• October 14th Election Polls
• October 2nd Election Polls
• August 28th Election Polls

The dataset for the election of 2004 can be found here and the electoral votes data can be found in any of the poll datasets. The map of the polls can be found here, the map of the 2004 results can be found here and the electoral votes map here.

States are polled by different polling companies and polls take place over different time periods but are updated when the newest ones are released. Battleground states are usually the most frequently polled.

Polling sources include Rasmussen Reports, Survey USA, NBC Mason Dixon, Insider Advantage, American Research Group and more.

Popularity: 11% [?]

In the past we blogged about Sarah Palin’s reach with women voters in key swing states. Tonight’s debate will be a turning point for undecided voters who are basing their election decision on what is said and presented tonight. A Washington Post-ABC News poll shows 6 in 10 independent voters think Palin is unqualified for the job. The McCain-Palin ticket is under additional pressure with Barack Obama solidifying leads in battleground blue states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania. In recent days, Obama had already taken leads in several states which voted for President Bush in either 2000 or 2004: New Mexico, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Colorado.

Using Finder! and Maker!, we developed maps that showed the potential Sarah Palin has in securing the important female vote, particularly in her target demographic (women under 50). We first looked at which states had the highest population of women between the ages of 18 and 50, and then examined the correlation of those states which were electing female officials.

States such as California, Texas, and Virginia have a high female voting population, and are electing female Mayors. There is a high population of female voters in battleground states like Utah and Colorado, but they do not generally elect female officials. Based on these demographics, Sarah Palin may need to do some strong campaigning in those battleground states in order to ensure that women vote for the McCain-Palin ticket.

Take a look at how we used Finder! and Maker! on our YouTube channel.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Is the geospatial industry affected by the world’s financial situation? Not as much as you would think, according to Jeff Thurston and Matt Ball of V1 Magazine . Thurston claims the geospatial industry tools are relevant because they are based on reality. Ball states that as long as geospatial technologies serves critical markets (government, homeland security, etc.), the industry can weather out economic downturns. The geospatial industry is innovative in its technology, which drives growth and will certainly provide career opportunities and a bright future for those involved.

Google adds a voting mapplet, offering registered voters polling location information by just entering your address. The developing site will feature voting information in mid-October. Visit your state or location election sites for registration information. Still want more political maps? Check out Electoral College map predictions and John McCain’s geo-biography in Google Earth.

Google Maps isn’t always perfect though. This week, reports on map spamming surfaced, also recent changes to Google Maps (switching from TeleAtlas to NavTeq) is rendering both Google Earth and Google maps incorrectly, according to Chad at Earth is Square.

Nokia 1.5 introduced their new mapping application, Nokia ViNe. The application gives users the ability to add location information to their geo-tagged photos. Nokia Photos uses map data from Navteq through the Maps on Ovi service.

GIS made the front page of the Coloradoan-Fort Collins. The Poudre School District received a small grant to help educate future high school graduates interested in geo technologies. The district will provide two courses for 50+ students to take in either clean energy for companies or GIS technologies.

Popularity: 11% [?]