Thanks to Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! for mentioning it on this weekend's show and to sidelobe for reminding me about it, I present the Purple Election 2004 Results, county by county. Unlike the red and blue maps that we've all seen over the past week, this map is purple:

Using County-by-County election return data from USA Today together with County boundary data from the US Census' Tiger database we produced the following graphic depicting the results. Of course, blue is for the democrats, red is for the republicans, and green is for all other. Each county's color is a mix of these three color components in proportion to the results for that county.

I look at this map and no longer see the harsh contrast between blue and red that has divided us for so long. Everything is a shade of purple. It's important work like this -- coming up with creative ways to color maps -- that will help us all put the bitterness that divides us behind us and work together to make a stronger, more purple, America.