Elections ignite emotions. From inspirational campaign speeches to divisive community issues, political action compels citizens to share their feelings about candidates and issues from coast to coast.  The web has made information about these emotions and trends more available — but the challenge has been making it more accessible.  That’s why many sites are using data visualizations to present voter sentiment. The simple interfaces and fun interactive components make number-heavy data easier to understand and more compelling than a spreadsheet.  Here are four data visualizations worth checking out during the 2010 U.S. midterm elections.  1. The New York Times Race Ratings  Like most interactive graphics from The New York Times, these election maps and charts are beautifully designed. The user experience is the best of all the data visualizations listed here. States are color-coded by party with shading showing the likelihood that the leading party will win. Individual state profiles include smaller graphics breaking down previous election results by county. The Times makes it their own by including the FiveThirtyEight Forecast, showcasing politics reporter Nate Silver’s projections for each race.  2. PBS Mediashift Social Media Snapshot  The only visualization not in map form on this list is the Social Media Snapshot of 2010 Senate Races. This graphic takes some of the most interesting voter sentiment information out there and makes it easy for users to compare data sets they’re interested in viewing.  After a report from HeadCount.org showed that Republicans were more engaged than Democrats in this election cycle, Mediashift contributor Anthony Calabrese created it using Tableau Public, a free data visualization program.  The graphic includes a drop-down menu from which users can choose a state. Each candidate’s Facebook and Twitter followers are then compared in a bar graph. Beneath this is a chart showing more granular data for the top 10 races, including the percentage of followers each candidate gained from September to October.  3. The Huffington Post Election Dashboard  has taken full advantage of its Pollster.com acquisition by creating extensive poll analysis graphics. Unlike other elections visualizations,  provide all information up front. Hovering over a state on the main map brings up linear charts showing data from the latest polls and those from the past year, as well as social media trends measuring candidate mentions from Facebook, Twitter and Google Buzz. Clicking on an individual state directs you to a page with a larger version of the latest polls graph, some with polling data from past years.  4. Washington Post 2010 Race Maps  With an already politically minded audience, The Washington Post developed a map chock-full of elections data. It provides historical results not only for the current races, but also for presidential races. Maps can be customized to show districts, primaries and races to watch. It’s most original in allowing users to sort data by race, age, poverty rate and percent uninsured.  If you’re interested in even more visualizations to track the upcoming elections, the following tools are definitely worth a look.  Though Google’s map focuses more on experts’ predictions than voter sentiment data, it’s worth checking out. You can compare expectations of top political opinions and find or contribute information about where to vote and what’s on the ballot in your area.  Foursquare plans to launch an interactive map on election night with data from checkins at polling places.  If this article wasn’t about the U.S. elections specifically, Guardian‘s Data Blog would have made the list for its beautiful visualizations of poll numbers from overseas.  - 17 Web Resources to Help You Decide on Election Day - Social Media: The New Battleground for Politics - How Political Campaigns Are Using Social Media for Real Results - How Social Media is Changing the Way Government Does Business  Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ermek
If you're keeping a close eye on this year's election, these four interactive graphics are essential for visualizing the country's political feelings and conversations.