Throughout the history of the United States there have been many changes politically and geographically. One change that has affected both of these areas is the continuous change of the geography of elections. These changes have affected the geography of elections on both the macro level and the micro level. The micro level refers to districts, towns, counties and other small areas. While the macro level focuses on national patterns in voting and political parties. When the United States was a young country, almost all of its population was concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Although this was a rather small area of land compared to today, there were still distinct areas that supported certain political ideas and political parties. As the country grew and people began to move towards the West, so did their views and beliefs on the country's political system.
A major part of voting and elections is the process of representation. There are many different types of representation and all of them have their own specifics and processes. Particular representation may also be known as, a representative democracy. This type of representation is tied very closely to place and space and focuses mainly on small areas such as districts, towns and boroughs. Two other types of representation that are distinctly different from particular representation, are virtual and proportional representation. Virtual representation basically means what it says, the person does not have to be there to be represented. Proportional representation means that the percentage of votes received equals the percentage of representation that the representative has. This type of representation is highly influenced by people voting strictly on the name of the party or platform, rather than the name of the candidate which represents them. These all show how different representation can be and how important it is to society.
