The Electoral College map, which has long sparked bipartisan anxiety on election night in the United States, is generating more laughs than groans as November approaches.
Throughout the Democratic National Convention This week, fake versions of the map filled social media feeds on X in what has become another popular political meme.
The trend is to take a blank map of the country, color it mostly blue or red, and then write a joke to indicate how Democrats or Republicans could win the entire electoral college. college It is made up of 538 electors and 270 votes are needed for a candidate to win the presidency.
Many recent memes contain text that begins with “The electoral map if…”
While meme cards aren’t a new element of elections — some date back to the early days of social media — interactive maps and the Electoral College map generators are more accessible than ever.
Know Your Meme, the online meme database, said the card trend dates Flashback to the 2000 election, in which former President George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, narrowly defeated former Vice President Al Gore.
As it became increasingly clear that Bush had won the presidency, some posted “unmotivational posters” (a parody of “motivational posters”) on now-defunct Electoral College map sites that described the country as the “United States of Florida,” a nod to the painstaking recount in the Sunshine State that ultimately secured Bush’s presidency.
In the next election, when Bush faced Senator John Kerry, NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” broadcast a skit about the Electoral College map. (“Saturday Night Live” and NBC News are both owned by NBCUniversal).
The cards remained an element of electoral humor in subsequent elections.
In 2014, the site Funny or die released a series of ridiculous Electoral College maps.
In 2016, the political news site FiveThirtyEight published two maps of the Electoral College showing what it would look like if only men voted and if only women votedrespectively. This also prompted a large number of people on social media to create memes about the cards, according to Know Your Meme.
With each election, the cards become more visible and more irreverent, which is why they’re hard to miss when traveling through X in 2024.
Numerous fake cards appeared on social media Thursday, the night Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president, amid speculation that the DNC would have a special guest who could be a high-profile pop star.
Although no surprise guests took the stage, the rumors inspired a wave of card-related jokes.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the DNC, please welcome your surprise guest, Katy Perry!” wrote a user Xwho joked that the majority of the country would vote Republican if DNC organizers put the pop artist forward as a guest.
“the electoral map if Beyoncé comes out on Thursday in front of a full choir singing the American Requiem”, wrote another user Xwith an image of an all-blue card.
“Electoral Map If Taylor Swift Announces Rep TV At DNC,” Another User on X jokedwith a credit card.