Election results chart — an overview

What is it for?

This template helps you visualize election results and compare them to a majority threshold. You can visualize one overall result or use the dropdown to select specific ones.

How to get started

1

You will need to have a CSV or other type of data file with the information you want to show. Your data needs to be arranged in wide format, meaning that each column should have a different variable to represent in the chart. In this case, each column can be a party or a candidate. Additionally, you can add a secondary dataset to the Historical data sheet if you want the chart to calculate the percent change of the results from one year to the next.

2

The column bindings are very simple: one setting for the Region name and another for the Party results. Here you can bind as many columns as parties you want to show in your chart. If you are showing only overall results, your data will likely have only one row. If you are also including other regions, then each new row in the data will appear as an option in the dropdown menu.

NOTE: The segments will always appear in the same order in the chart, regardless of which party got the most votes in the different regions. This is to improve the readability of the chart. You can determine the order of the segments within the column bindings. For example, if you have results for Party A in Column B, Party B in Column C and Party C in Column D but you want them to show Party C first, you will need to bind the columns as D, B-C instead of the usual B-D.

3

Go to the Preview tab to style your chart further. You can customize the colors assigned to your parties in the Chart styles by using color overrides.

4

You can modify the threshold line in the Threshold line settings. By default, it sits at 50% but you can adjust it to fit your data.

5

Within the Dropdown and legend settings you can customize the look fo your dropdown, add a title to your legend, change the order of the color swatches or even omit full parties by not including them in the Custom order override text field. The legend in this chart has a special property by which users can click on a swatch to hide that specific party. This should help them create custom coalitions.

6

The last set of option unique to this template are the Text and translation settings. Here you can set the text that accompanies several elements of the chart. For example, the text next to the dropdown or the prompt that invites users to click on the legend swatches to create custom coalitions.