Beautiful (but also sad)

Isn't this a beautiful infographic representing the voter divide and the voter turn-out data for the DC Primary election for At-large City Council member?  I love infographics, and I love data.  I wish I were better at presenting and depicting data in this beautiful visual and clear way.

Washington, Post. April 4, 2012

On a sad note, this city is so racially divided, depicted so clearly on the map - the white (blue) -black (green) divide feels more demarcated and prominent than ever as the city's demographic change.  See how Upper Cupcake aka Upper Northwest is so blue, and the blue travels south to Georgetown, and eastward to 16th Street NW.  Travels that Golden Mile, crosses over to Mount Pleasant and the now gentrified Columbia Heights, Dupont Circle and the lofts of downtown Chinatown, and condos of NoMa.  It stays blue across The Mall, well into Capitol Hill, and south to the SW waterfront and Navy Yard.  If only we could track that voter spread against real estate prices, household income, and of course race.  Likewise, the green stays east - first in Petworth,  down and over to Bloomington, Trinidad, and Benning Road, and across the Anacostia to Congress Heights and Minnesota Avenue - in the blackest parts of our city.

The red map is good, too.  It seems our low interest in voting traverses the entire city hovering around 15% across the voting precincts.

Will this city ever overcome its racial divide?  And how?  What would that look like?  I mean Marion Barry just got re-elected to City Council in Ward 8 with 72% of the vote!  Then, he got a little giddy with that victory, and began talking trash during his election night speech at the Player's Lounge about getting rid of the Asian-owned businesses.  SMDH.

Late on the Uptake: DC Mayoral Election

This post is long overdue, but still fascinating -  to me, at least.

In last week's DC's mayoral election, nearly one-in-four voters cast their vote by write-in for incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty, who had decidedly lost his primary bid 53 to 46% to his opponent, and the ultimate victor, Vincent Gray.  That's right, in the final election, twenty-three percent of votes were taken by a write-in candidate, who explicitly stated he was not pursuing a write-in campaign, and conceded to Gray well over a month earlier.  Talk about a divided city!

For me, there are many 'what if's?' that I realize a well-run democracy cannot accomodate. For example, in the primary, Republicans, Independents, and the Statehood Green party could not obviously not vote for Fenty, but may have indeed considered him the best candidate.  It is also interesting, because many Fenty supporters gave their vote to Gray in the final election, even though he was not their candidate, but was the best of the choices. I suppose I'm asking, what if there were not primary party elections, but rather the whole city votes the best candidate?  Makes me question party politics at all in this day and age.  And particularly in this city of 95+% registered Democrats.

I, myself, was at a loss to support Gray, but did not have other viable options. I would not vote for the other party candidates, as I did not think they had experience or merit; I also did not want to write-in Fenty (though he was my choice) because he explicitly said he was not seeking a write-in.  In the end, I abstained on my mayoral vote on my ballot, which was a very painful and difficult call - and one that I'm not even sure I was comfortable doing.  My thinking was, "I will not explicitly support Gray with my vote, but nor will I vote for another candidate that I think is no good; nor will I vote for a candidate who is not running. My silence is my tacit dissent."  But what good is tacit dissent, if nobody hears it?

As it happens, write-in non-candidate Fenty won three precincts in my ward, and won two precincts each in two other wards. As mentioned, overall, twenty-three percent of the votes went to non-candidate Fenty -  not bad for someone who is not even running!