Cartography, Electoral

Electoral cartography is a process concerning the mapping of election data and patterns. Electoral cartography has evolved from its application in the early 1900s to a practice widely applied by present day scholars in the 21st century. Recent developments in GIS technologies, which allow cartographic data to be more readily accessible to scholars, but also the public, through the media and the internet have expanded the process of electoral cartography in the modern context. A number of criticisms and issues within electoral cartography exist from a methodological perspective, including those emerging from feminist studies. The increased sophistication of cartographic techniques has also been associated with an upsurge in the practices of gerrymandering during the 2000s. These critiques may be addressed with new developments in the cartographic process, in relation to open source GIS, allowing for a stronger qualitative dimension to be invested in this research. The overall importance of geographical scale and place, in relation to electoral cartography, firmly roots the practice in the wider discipline of human geography.