Inside PBS Blog

No matter who moves into the White House in January, the real winners in this election may be the cartographers.

Everyone, it seems, has gone map crazy:

• CNN has its whiz bang election map, a career-making toy for reporter John King.
• The Christian Science Monitor offers Patchwork Nation, a site that aims to go beyond the conventional red state/blue state divide.
•  Google offers maps that trace the life journeys of McCain and Obama, as well as a map that tracks both candidates on the campaign trail.
• The Washington Post's Electoral College Prediction Map allows users to predict the outcome.
• And PBS and National Public Radio have joined forces to offer the NPR/NewsHour Outlook map, an online resource that shows where McCain and Obama are leading in the polls, as well as the likely battleground states that will decide the election.

Each map offers something different.

For example, the NPR/NewsHour map focuses on the presidential election but it also shows what's happening in each state's House races, as well as states with Senate contests.

In the presidential race, users can see how each state lined up in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 elections. (Click the mouse to see New Hampshire go from blue to red to blue again!)

Users can also click on each state to read election coverage from local public broadcasters.

This week's headlines: Georgia Democrats have chosen their candidate to take on Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss in November; Wal-Mart is denying reports that it's encouraging store managers in Missouri to vote Republican; and racial unease in a Tennessee congressional race.

Meanwhile, Patchwork Nation is looking at the election through 11 different types of communities, including "Evangelical Epicenters," "Monied 'Burbs," and "Tractor Country."

"The red-state blue-state breakdown of political opinion is inherently flawed because it doesn't explain what underpins voters' decisions," says Dante Chinni, director of the project, which is funded by the Knight Foundation.

The Patchwork Nation message board allows users to share their ideas during the election season.

A recent debate centered on whether the economy or the Iraq war should be the dominant issue of the presidential campaign.

Users have also weighed in on how Obama can appeal to voters in Appalachia, McCain's support for the war and the role of Israel in American politics.

What do you think?

Do the election maps meet your needs? Do they do a good job showing what's at stake in this year's election? Do you pay attention to politics in others states?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below.