Secretary Nelson's Maps Rule!

Not only has the Secretary of State's election results website held up under the onslaught of referrals from the Madville Times, but it also provides the best numerical and visual information about the South Dakota election you can find anywhere. If you haven't checked it out yet, do! The maps in particular provide some fascinating fodder for Wednesday-morning electoral armchair quarterbacking. Among some fast fun facts illustrated by the maps:

• Amendments G, H, and J and Initiated Measures 9 and 10 lost in every county of South Dakota. So did Chris Lien.
  
• Joel Dykstra won just four counties, and two of them (Jones and Harding) still voted against IM11 by just a snudge more than the statewide margin.
• Outside of Haakon County, IM11's support lay in three contiguous clusters:

(Book your oil exploration expeditions and End-Time vacation plans
for Watertown, Corsica, McIntosh, and Midland.)

• Amendment I, the only ballot measure that succeeded, drew its support primarily from the southeast and southwest corners of the state:

Thank you, Secretary Nelson, for the very cool map toys to keep me from being productive all morning! Folks, when you get a chance, go check out the maps, see what interesting patterns you can discover!