I'd be happy on Crusoe's island if its WiFi gave access to only this site—"an extremely detailed map of the 2020 election," courtesy of The New York Times. It appears to be incomplete for certain states, such as California, but for most of the country, including all of Minnesota, you can see the result by precinct, that is, at the level of individual polling places. You just enter the name of a city or town, or zip code, to get in the vicinity and then zoom in or out to the very specific location you're interested in. When you hover over the area assigned to a particular polling station, it shows you how many votes for Biden and how many for Trump were reported out of it, and the corresponding percentages. The map is colored shades of red and blue to indicate who got more votes and how close it was.
Trump managed to make my postage stamp of home turf—Minneapolis's Ward 11, Precinct 1—even more Democratic than usual, which isn't an easy trick as typically in the past Democrats running for statewide office get around 80 to 85 percent of the vote here. Not a lot of upside, but in 2020 it was 1528 for Biden to 152 for Trump, 90-9 in terms of percent. For locals who might be interested, the precinct is bordered on the east by 35W, on the north by 46th Street, on the west by Lyndale Avenue, and on the south by 50th Street.
I would describe the neighborhood as unpretentiously and uniformly middle-class. You notice neither signs of opulence nor any shabbiness. My neighbors are well enough off to consider me, a known consumer of Miller High Life, an object of charity. The Dollar Store on Nicollet Avenue, a block from my house, has closed to make way for a Trader Joe's. This is a good sign for the neighborhood and, assuming the market comes with attached liquor store, convenience might induce me to try some beverages more to the neighbors' taste.
If you exit 35W at 46th Street, go south a block or two, and then head west through the precinct, you might notice that the homes become a little grander as you get farther from the freeway. This is the opposite of bragging, since I live just a block from the freeway, but in truth I think you'd have to be alert, or a real estate appraiser, to detect the difference. Maybe it's just my imagination. When, however, you cross Lyndale Avenue, the main north-south thoroughfare in the area and the western boundary of Ward 11, anyone could tell that you're now in different socioeconomic territory. Lake Harriet is about a 10-minute walk ahead, and this pleasant topographical feature is at the center of some of Minneapolis's nicest residential neighborhoods. As you proceed west now the homes change from lovely to large and lovely. If one happens to be for sale and out of curiosity you grab a flyer from the box in the front yard, there's a chance that the price is in 7 figures. If you'd like to buy me such a place as a gift, fine, but I'll be bankrupt within a few years unless you pay the property taxes, too. I set this all out just as a tease about what the election result might have been in this precinct that's far more affluent than the one I live in just to its east: instead of Biden by 1528 to 152, it was Biden by 1818 to 170. So where I live, get Biden's number by adding 8 after multiplying Trump's number by ten, whereas to the west, among managing partners of law firms and the like, you have to add 118 after multiplying by ten.
It's fun just to scroll around and be surprised by stuff—or not surprised. I like to check out places to which I have a personal connection. At the polling place where my parents would have voted while I was growing up, in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, it was Biden 783, Trump 353. Where my sister votes, in Northfield, Minnesota, a college town, it was Biden 1653 to Trump 623. Our parents both grew up in outstate Minnesota, dad in a tiny village a little west of Willmar called Sunburg: Trump 47, Biden 13. Mom grew up on a farm in Watonwan County outside of St. James: Trump 111, Biden 55. The most startling result I stumbled on seems like it could be a near violation of the secret ballot. From a precinct in Harlem, northern Manhattan in NYC:
If there is one sullen old white guy on the block, suspicion is going to fall on him!
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