50 Shades Of Purple

There are 2  pretty important things that usually get ignored when looking at how the voting splits out in a national election.  First is the actual mix of Repub/Dem votes in any given location, and the second is the density of the voter population.  So when you just look a the Electoral College map, all you see is big chunks of Red in the middle flanked by big chunks of Blue on the sides.

But when you look at it with a finer granulation, the resolution gets pretty sharp.

(Click on the picture to get a good close look)

(hat tip = Democratic Underground)