The last presidential debate was just a few days ago for which CNN has released an interesting and simplistic video map of the view points of other countries regarding the U.S. presidential election. Along with this offering I will examine the Economist web site which poses the question “how would the world vote in the presidential election”.

CNN Global Viewer Perception Map

CNN’s most recent offering is a fairly simplistic world map with clickable push pins. Clicking on a push pin brings up a video offering from a CNN correspondent that then highlights the nations views and opinions of the debate and the election. As I said, this map is extremely simplistic and takes very little time to watch all the videos. It is interesting to hear how the rest of the world views our candidates and how it will affect their country and lives. Of course Joe the Plumber does get a shout out from one of the videos.

Economist Global Electoral College Website -”What If the World Could Vote”

The basic premise for this map is how the world would vote if it could participate in our presidential election. The site contains a simple vote button that allows a person to vote as well as a running electoral tally. Besides the central map on the right is a great see saw graphic that shows the percentages for each candidate. Additional information about each candidate, policies and news is included below the map.


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The interactive component has been thought out pretty well. The default information is for the entire world. When you hover over a country a bubble appears that gives the percentages of votes for each candidate. Clicking on a country changes the right panel information to the information of the selected country.

Overall, I think this map is very interesting and thought provoking. The largest problem I see is that the votes are based on visits to the website to vote, so really it is only polling people who have been to the website. Some countries only have a few votes, not really giving enough weight to the results. I like the layout and design though and feel the site creators have put allot of thought into creating the site components.

Both of these maps provide global perceptions of the United States presidential election is seen in other areas of the world. You can visit the maps for CNN here and for the Economist here. As I have said in previous postings please feel free to leave me your thoughts or interpretations in the comments, and please check back as I will be adding additional content to this series soon.