Big Data and Election Spending

Editor’s Note: The following is posted to illustrate the power of Big Data analyses and the importance of public access to federal datasets — and datasets relied on by federal decisionmakers. 

From: Splunk

Splunk4Good is bringing you new insights in campaign finance. We Splunked the FEC Campaign Finance Data! Check out the video:

Why did we Splunk the FEC data in the first place? The  magic of open data is revealed when the public actually uses the data.

The video reveals answers to our burning questions:

  • What state gives the most?
  • Which state gives the most per capita? (Bet you won’t guess this one!)
  • What does aggregate giving look like visualized over the election cycle?
  • Is your city more Red or more Blue?
  • What does a map viz with drilldown reveal about giving by zip codes or cities?
  • What occupation gives the most?
  • Are geologists more Red or more Blue (Hint: think about where geologist live and who they work for!)

Splunk Ninja, Michael Wilde, and our own VP of Engineering, Stephen  Sorkin, combined forces in the name of Splunk4Good to bring you this  project.

It only took us a couple hours to get this data into Splunk and build cool visualizations. What insights did we miss? Splunk the data yourself and let us know your insights @Splunk4Good or @xty on Twitter. Not a Splunk customer? We are on a freemium model, so download now and try it out.

Hungry for more cool election viz? Splunk4Good and Rock the Vote have partnered to build an unique view into the U.S. Election. See what topics the twitterverse is talking about in the final hours of the election.

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