Electoral vs. College

In 2003, the US Census Bureau published a list of all 50 states and Washington DC, which ranked them in order of their college graduation rates. The data showed the percentage of state residents age 25 and older who have completed a college bachelor's degree. When the top 20 states are colored in blue and the rest are left red, the resulting map is strikingly similar to that of the 2004 Presidential Election.

In the ongoing dispute over the election results, some Republicans claim the exit polls (which showed John Kerry winning decisive victories in major states including Ohio) were rigged by the media to create the illusion of a Bush loss early in the evening. On the other hand, Democrats claim that exit polls are almost never wrong and since the eventual vote tallies did not reflect the expected results, the official vote count must be wrong.