One problem with your typical election map is that it lets you see which candidate won where, but that’s about it. In classic presidential election maps, that means it’s easy to see if a state voted Democrat or Republican, but not necessarily which candidate actually won, thanks to large differences in U.S. population densities — giving us states like Montana, which is 4th-largest in area but tied for dead last in number of electoral votes.

That’s why, if you’re a data geek, it can be interesting to make your own election maps to visualize the questions that are important to you. For example: Where were a candidate’s real areas of strength and weakness? Which areas contributed most to victory? This goal of better mapping trends can work with many other types of data, from sales figures to mobile data coverage.

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