Election apportionment diagram

Election votes are often represented using bar charts or pie charts, frequently labeled with the corresponding percentage or number of votes. An example of this can be seen in the BBC Coverage of the 2019 parliamentary election ({{cite news |last1=Dunford |first1=Daniel |title=Election results 2019: Analysis in maps and charts |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/election-2019-50770798 |work=News |agency=BBC |display-authors=et. al. |date=2019-12-13}}) The apportionment of seats among the parties in a legislative body has a defined set of rules unique to each body. For example, the Senate of Virginia states,

{{quote|The Clerk of the Senate, after the election of Senators, shall assign desks to the individual Senators with the Senators elected as members of the majority party in the Senate in the chamber area beginning at the north side of the chamber until all such desks have been assigned, and then the Senators elected as members of the minority party in the Senate, and then any Senator not elected as a member of the two major political parties.{{cite web |title=Seating Chart |url=https://apps.senate.virginia.gov/Senator/seatingchart.php |year=2020 |publisher=Senate of Virginia |accessdate=2020-04-13}}}}

Instead of using a bar or pie chart, the apportionment of seats among parties in a legislative body such as a parliament can be more clearly represented by displaying the individual representatives of each party as dots in a pattern. The number of representatives is significant and easily understood visually. The dots are typically coded according to the political color of the respective parties.{{Cite magazine |last=Drum |first=Kevin |date=2004-11-14 |title=Red States and Blue States ... Explained! |url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_11/005157.php |magazine=The Washington Monthly |access-date=2010-11-04 |archive-date=June 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604084933/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_11/005157.php |url-status=dead }} Traditionally presented as a seating chart of a plenary hall, it can also be represented in a more abstract fashion that loosely corresponds to the seating arrangement in a legislature, such as a form of half-donut chart as an abstract representation of a hemicycle, or a stylized representation of the Westminster Parliament, showing government, opposition, speaker and crossbenchers. In Germany, the order of the bars usually corresponds from left to right to the placement of the parties in the previous election and is thus based on the order given on the ballot, which is regulated in Section 30 of the {{ill|Federal Electoral Act|de|Bundeswahlgesetz}}.{{cite web |work=Der Bundeswahlleiter |url=https://www.bundeswahlleiter.de/service/glossar/r/reihenfolge-wahlvorschlaege-stimmzettel.html | trans-title = Order of nominations on the voting slip |title=Reihenfolge der Wahlvorschläge auf dem Stimmzettel – Der Bundeswahlleiter |date=2018-11-04 |language=de}}

These charts can also represent data understandably.{{cite web |last1=Pandey |first1=Rajeev |title=Parliament chart in Tableau |url=https://vizartpandey.com/parliament-chart-in-tableau |website=Vizart Pandey |accessdate=2020-08-18 |date=2019-09-02}} An example of this is politicians’ responses to the Orlando shootings.{{cite web |last1=shivaraj |title=Orlando Killings: Democrats vs. Republicans |url=https://public.tableau.com/profile/shivarajc#!/vizhome/OrlandoKillingResponsesDemocratsvsRepublicans/OrlandoKillings |website=Tableau Public |date=2016-07-12}}

File:House of Lords composition.svg|Schematic diagram of the House of Lords, showing government, opposition, cross-bench and speaker, without being an accurate representation of the seating layout

File:NIAssembly20200111.svg|Stylised U-shaped diagram meant to depict the layout of the Northern Ireland Assembly

File:(119th) US House of Representatives Seating.svg|An election apportionment diagram closely mirroring the actual seating layout of the United States House of Representatives

File:Bundestag Draft D transparent.png|An election apportionment diagram closely mirroring the actual seating layout of the Bundestag

• Red states and blue states

• {{Cite journal |last=Bradberry |first=Brent A. |url=https://archives.vrdc.cornell.edu/info4470/Lecture%20Notes/bradberry-1992_apportionment-2691355.pdf |title=A Geometric View of Some Apportionment Paradoxes |date=February 1992 |volume=65 |pages=3–17 |jstor=2691355 |issue=1|doi=10.1080/0025570X.1992.11995970|journal=Mathematics Magazine}}
• {{Cite web |last=Tsai |first=Yun-Da |date=2018-10-08 |title=Latvia Parliamentary Elections Deliver Pro-Russia, Anti-Establishment Parties Victory |url=https://www.irinsider.org/easterncentral-europe/2018/10/8/latvia-parliamentary-elections-deliver-pro-russia-anti-establishment-parties-victory |website=IR Insider |publisher=International Relations Society at NYU |access-date=October 10, 2020 |archive-date=July 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220725032639/https://www.irinsider.org/easterncentral-europe/2018/10/8/latvia-parliamentary-elections-deliver-pro-russia-anti-establishment-parties-victory |url-status=dead }}

• {{Commonscat-inline|Election apportionment diagrams}}
• [https://parliamentdiagram.toolforge.org/parlitest.php Parliament diagram creation tool]
• [https://www.ourcommons.ca/marleaumontpetit/DocumentViewer.aspx?DocId=1001&Sec=Ch04&Seq=11&Language=E THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND ITS MEMBERS]
• [https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/house-seating-plan House seating plan]

Category:Apportionment (politics)

Category:Statistical charts and diagrams