2014 Election Party Votes

Background

Earlier in the year, Chris McDowall investigated hexagonal cartograms of New Zealand for displaying 2011 electorate wins. It's a really interesting idea - you can see the small urban electorates on an equal visual footing with the physically larger rural ones. I thought a similar thing could be interesting for looking at how the 2014 party votes varied around the country.

The code adapts fairly well. I made alterations for the electorate changes (Waitakere gone; new Kelston and Upper Harbour) and added in the Māori electorates in the top left. The size of the hexagons is relative to the largest number of votes for the party in an electorate, so the areas relate directly to the number of votes. The opacity of the colouring is based on the percentage of votes in the electorate (similar, but not identical to votes, due to different turnouts in each electorate):

Big Four

The diagrams probably speak for themselves. National did fairly well across the country, except for South Auckland and the Māori electorates, which is where Labour did best. The Greens have most of their support in the big cities, especially Wellington. (Is there something uniquely special about Wellington, or are they doing something they can export elsewhere?) NZ First did relatively well in the Māori electorates and rural North Island. (Why less in the South Island?)

Here are the maps in more detail:

Minor Parties

The Conservatives look to have the best national coverage of the minor parties. ACT is an Auckland party. Focus NZ really was focussed! ALCP looks to be the 5th Māori party (though their top result was 1.4%, so don't over-interpret).

Here are the maps in more detail:


David Friggens, @dakvid, david <at> frigge.nz, October 2014