Blogger Notes

Title: A Bolt of Blue: Colorado's recent presidential voting history

The Team: Mara Auster, Andrea Sutherland, Corey Jones, Allison Sandza, Judith Houlding

Purpose statement: To examine Colorado’s historical trends of voting democratic in presidential elections and to understand the significant variables that have contributed to the current shift toward its status as a blue state. After investigating the information and trends, we will also theorize how Colorado will vote in the future.

Scope and scale: Our focus is on presidential elections in Colorado since World War II. We are investigating geographic, economic, generational, and industrial variables in presidential elections in Colorado. We will also investigate the possible influence of "green" industry/conservation politics. A history of voting blue since 1940 will help provide framework and context for our project. We will also discuss what effect the 2008 Democratic National Convention had. We will not investigate the history of state politics, past Democratic governors or legislative body.

Media goals: We plan to utilize photo slideshows, audio slideshows and video footage taken in interviews as well as archival video footage of the DNC or past historical events that are relevant to our project's purpose. We would also like to create an interactive map that functions like a
timeline of voting history in presidential elections since WWII.

Who will do what: Mara is doing much of the still photography; Allison and Corey will help with video footage; the rest are print and Web implementation.

Possible Obstacles: Obtaining Census data prior to 1980 may prove difficult. As with any project, some people may object to being filmed/photo'd or recorded. More obstacles may occur in the coming weeks.