Things That Make You Go Hmmmm... (ballot colors)

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

In the course of a day I often see silly (and sometimes not so silly) things which cause me to wonder about who made the decisions involved and what their thought process was. Today when I went to vote, the color of the ballots provided me with such a moment of wonder.

The Democratic ballot had a pale red header and the Republican ballot a pale blue one.

Now I don't know the history of the colors associated with these political parties but it seems like the norm is: Democrats == blue, Republicans == Red. So how did the ballots end up reversing those typical color associations? Someone decided to do that, someone specified which colors to use on which ballot.

A snafu?
A sly experiment in cognitive disorientation?
An evil conspiracy to... amuse people like me?

I asked the election worker who gave me the ballot and he acknowledged that it was some sort of oversight. Oops. Oh well.

Oh - the guy before was asking for the "Libertarian" ballot and was very dismayed when he was told that there wasn't one – that no one was running. Not sure what was up with that.

Comments

[teko.livejournal.com]

I wish the Green-Rainbow Party ballot had been both green and rainbow colored. Sadly, only green.

I'm fascinated to know who that guy thought he was going to vote for. Ayn Rand?

[irilyth]

There is a Libertarian Party, they do nominate a POTUS candidate, and they are having primaries in some places; just not in MA. https://www.lp.org/candidates/presidential-candidates-2016/ for more info if you're curious.

[ron_newman]

There's nothing "official" about red Republicans and blue Democrats. They seem to have become the standard as a result of various media coalescing around that color scheme after the disputed 2000 Presidential election. I always found this to be odd, because historically the color red is identified with the political Left.

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

Yes, always seemed odd to me too – "better dead than red" etc.

I've googled around a bit and have seen references to the year 2000 as the start of the color scheme (mmm....scheme) though I would have bet money it started much earlier. But maybe I am conflating the animal thing (Donkey, etc) with colors.

This link Why are Republicans red and Democrats blue? (http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/6/3609534/republicans-red-democrats-blue-why-election) claims it was a New York Times thing... because "red begins with r, Republican begins with r," said the senior graphics editor Archie Tse, "it was a more natural association." ...and blue... because there aren't many (any?) color names which begin with "d".


And hey, good luck! I voted for you. You gonna make the GLX run on time?? ;-)

[ron_newman]

The donkey and elephant go back much, much longer.

[joyeuxnoel.livejournal.com]

I've read that blue used to be for the incumbent party and red the challenging party.

Then the 2000 election happened and everyone stared at that map forever.

[rose_garden.livejournal.com]

I've heard that, too.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

I've only heard that today; before I'd heard alternating colors until 2000.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

I think the truth is something like that. Back in the day, red and blue were just two colors that contrasted well on television. (And probably they look significantly different in black-and-white, which used to be an important consideration.) But the 2000 race froze the two colors in people's minds.

It wouldn't be impossible for the Massachusetts ballot regulations to require that the colors be randomized in some way among precincts. I know that with the old voting machines it was important to rotate which party got the top row and which got the second row. (With, I think the minor parties below in descending order by their vote count in the previous gubernatorial election.) The problem being that putting a party on the top row measurably increases their vote total. There may be similar issues with color symbolism.

Add me to the list

[avjudge]

Add me to the list of those for whom the colors seem backwards - and recent. Not just the historic red = left ("pinko commie"), but blue makes me think "blue-blood" Republican - probably both a remnant of growing up during the cold-war, establishment-Republican era.

Every time I hear red/blue, I have to stop and consciously reverse the colors in my mind to get the reference straight.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the last time I voted in a primary the Democratic ballot was pink and the Republican one was blue. Maybe someone is deliberately trying to disturb the status quo.

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

Wow, the site still stands. I first learned about the red/blue graphics issues from Dave Leip's Atlas: http://uselectionatlas.org/ It used to be reversed, but it somehow got standardized around 2000, as Ron noted.

From the notes: http://uselectionatlas.org/note.html

Note, this site uses Blue for Republicans and Red for Democrats. I know that most media outlets have adopted the opposite color key in recent years (I started building the maps well before the recent "standard"). However, due to the sheer volume of maps on this site, changing them to match the media's recent color choices requires a significant investment in time. The colors are only a key to the candidates that win each state, county or municipality... there is no significance in the color representation for a given party.

Note that R=Blue, D=Red is the more traditional representation: other examples
National Atlas Presidential Elections from the United States Department of the Interior
Time Magazine's 1996 Election Map (http://uselectionatlas.org/IMAGES/time-election-map-1996.pdf)

I was once told that Red was the color of the Euro/communist lefties and that's why it used to be red on the left. But I never checked that.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Red was the color of the Euro/communist lefties

There definitely was color symbolism, with a solid red flag for communism (or socialism more generally) and a solid black flag for anarchism.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

In the past, the color choice used to be less set in stone. It depended on which network or news source you were looking at. Then 2000 happened, and we ended up with "Red" and "Blue" states. It's purely a recent thing.

Take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states, which has a fairly good summary of the history.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I definitely remember it being different between networks in the 1980s.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Not a conspiracy. http://www.wcvb.com/politics/why-are-the-colors-reversed-on-massachusetts-ballots/38279332

[londo.livejournal.com]

I've always heard that the current blue/red thing is mostly from the graphics that CNN used as we all stared at the 2000 election forever, but while sources seem to agree on 2000, I'm not seeing a lot of fingers being pointed at CNN specifically.

ballot color

[smk0307.livejournal.com]

My Democratic ballot in Somerville was dark lavender.