My local paper should not be allowed graphs.
I know better than to look at graphs in my local paper. They use them like illuminated initials or other works of the rubricator. Everyone knows it isn't a 21st century newspaper article until you've rubricated.
But today I received this treat…
Clearly the reds beat the blues in the senate, their column is longer. Except the numbers say the left side has 51, so maybe the blues won. And why is there a blue hiding in the red column with the pales and the zinc chromate green party? And there are only 50 dots on the blue side, not 51.
I think I see where they were heading. The 50 and the gray line provide a clue. The gray line marks the center line, so they are trying to show a tipping point for party line voting. I have no idea why they chose a different horizontal dimension to distort the data on the Senate and Governor tables.
As far as I know there is no mechanism for governors to party line vote amongst themselves, so that middle line is meaningless.
A little dragging about in Preview fixes the quantitative visualization for them… … the voting governors issue is irreparable. I should have reordered to put the winning party fill beginning in the upper left for House and Governor, but that's more clicking and dragging than I feel like this morning.