Election Maps Show Old Borders

**ltapia** · December 15th, 2011, 05:08 AM

A strange and easily overlooked phenomenon was laid out by writer and part-time cartographer Frank Jacobs in the NYTimes opinion section: dead borders that re-appear during elections. To put it more clearly: in several countries today if you look at a map with election results, you will see defunct borders from the past. Which could also lead to the conclusion, there are still divisions that exist between regions even if borders disappeared long ago. @UnitedAcademics

The past is the past right? Prussia, the Confederate United States, the Soviet Union; what if I told you these borders still appear every few years? What if there were documented evidence?

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**John Galt** · December 15th, 2011, 05:10 AM

Originally Posted by ltapia

The past is the past right? Prussia, the Confederate United States, the Soviet Union; what if I told you these borders still appear every few years? What if there were documented evidence?

I would say, so what? Errors abound in journalism. a few more seem incidental. Are you suggesting these are not errors, but some subtle attempt to manipulate group thinking?

**ltapia** · December 15th, 2011, 05:17 AM

It could be a coincidence..

**John Galt** · December 15th, 2011, 05:29 AM

Well, it helps it if one takes the time to read the linked article before replying: something I did not do. Based on your OP alone you appeared to be saying that obsolete borders were being physically shown on certain maps. Of course, what the article notes is that how people have voted in recent elections seems to reflect where those borders were located. This is certainly much more than coincidence and not at all surprising. Indeed, I would be surprised if this were not the case. Cultures and political thinking have considerable inertia and the changes of a few borders will hardly wipe those differences out in a generation or two.