The purpose of political maps. what information do they contain? what is able to be gleaned from studying political maps? definition of popular vote and electoral vote description of the democratic party and republican party selection of maps: select two presidential races from 1940-2000 that are interesting to you. one should be pre-1970, and the other should be post-1980. based on your research, analyze the spread of power through the nation for each election. what part of the nation had the most votes for the president-elect? evaluation and interpretation of maps: based on your research, what conclusions can you make about the balance of party power between the years 1940-2000? how did the balance change? what could possibly account for those changes? conclusion: what did you learn about political maps? about the voting process? about party power and the political changes in the united states?