This now reminds me of the king-pawn race to the back rank: https://www.regencychess.co.uk/blog/2012/10/chess-noob-14-the-pawn-square/

I take issue with the "Make all the (extremely cool) charts you want but it has no meaning" comment. What the vote cones give us is the ability to see past the pundits who are announcing the football game over the radio as if it is a tense race. What if you think of these more like a receipt being printed at grocery store, the order of your items will affect the play-by-play running total but in the end there is just one number. The grocery clerk doesn't try to get you excited by dramatically noting the addition of expensive items but the political pundits do. I got a sense of comfort from these unfolding on election night and the days following, they made it clear that results are not instant, that the possibility space is wide or narrow in different situations at different times. By seeing everything laid out (and bounded) it protected me from the anxiety of the constant uncertainty. I'd be much more positive about what this tells us, what this *shows* us. How the ballots were counted is STILL a newsworthy subject, the lack of understanding of the system functions is a primary vector for attack that is being hammered right now. Just because we can't solve all the problems with this vis, I think it can play an important role in solidifying the foundation of democracy given the threats social media has posed.

: ) Thanks for the vote of confidence Ian!! I loved hearing about people checking back on it, and felt satisfied to have made something that I kept wanting to update. It stings to get comments like the "worthless" tweet, but I find I feel better by making a show of embracing it and assuming it's right, and then trying to synthesize that into a better understanding of my own position & what I've done. (And playing down the value of what I've done, letting it speak for itself, feels a lot better than trying to evangelize.)