North Dakota Spills

June 7, 2012, 10:46 a.m.

Help Us Track How Politicians Target You

May 30, 2012, 11:51 a.m.

Political campaigns are using increasingly sophisticated methods to target messages to voters, methods that are not at all transparent. We need your help to uncover and understand them.

Announcing Simpler Tiles

March 9, 2012, 2:15 p.m.

Today, we’re releasing Ruby bindings for Simple Tiles, so you can generate tiles from Ruby.

When Are 190 Emails Like Six Emails?

March 8, 2012, 11:30 a.m.

Reverse-Engineering Obama’s Message Machine

March 6, 2012, 5:34 p.m.

How different are a campaign’s emails to different voters? President Obama’s re-election campaign tried at least six different messages sent on behalf of campaign deputy manager Julianna Smoot in an email blast last week.

Message Machine: Reverse Engineering an Obama Email Campaign

March 6, 2012, 5:34 p.m.

Campaigns are increasingly tailoring their messages—and their funding requests—using massive databases of personal information about potential voters. Here are six variations of a Thursday night message from the Obama campaign, based on emails submitted by 190 recipients across the country.

Message Machine: “You Probably Don’t Know Janet”

March 6, 2012, 5:29 p.m.

Campaigns are increasingly tailoring their messages — and their funding requests — using massive databases of personal information about potential voters. Here are six variations of a Thursday night message from the Obama campaign, based on emails submitted by 190 recipients across the country. Click a tab to select an email. Then hover over the other tabs to compare your selection to the others.

Introducing Simple Tiles: Our New Mapping Library

Feb. 13, 2012, 12:14 p.m.

Anatomy of a Stepper Graphic

Jan. 30, 2012, 4:10 p.m.

A small library for stepper graphics.

Answering Your Questions on Our California Redistricting Story

Dec. 23, 2011, 7 p.m.

We answer your questions about our California redistricting story.

Rep. Jerry McNerney’s District

Dec. 21, 2011, 6:45 p.m.

Democrats recognized that they could protect Jerry McNerney from being redistricted out of office by the Citizen’s Redistricting Commission.

California Redistricting Commission Emails

Dec. 21, 2011, 3:39 p.m.

California Redistricting Commission Meeting Transcripts

Dec. 21, 2011, 3:39 p.m.

California Redistricting Commission Public Comments

Dec. 21, 2011, 3:39 p.m.

Map: A Tale of Two Districts

Dec. 21, 2011, 3:39 p.m.

How Democrats Fooled California’s Redistricting Commission

Dec. 21, 2011, 3:38 p.m.

To get the districts they wanted, Democrats organized groups that said they represented communities, but really represented the party.

Redistricting, a Devil’s Dictionary

Nov. 2, 2011, 9:08 a.m.

Redistricting is a hard-knuckled game, in which voters often lose. Here are the colorful, and telling, terms used by insiders.

Fair Districts Mass Proposals

Sept. 23, 2011, 6:41 p.m.

Fair Districts Mass says it is an independent group seeking better representation for minorities, but it has proposed maps that call its motives into question.

Florida’s 3rd Congressional District

Sept. 23, 2011, 6:36 p.m.

Congresswoman Corrine Brown, an African-American Democrat from Florida, represents one of the most irregularly shaped districts in the nation.