Fig 1.10 — County-level scale, same 2004 election.

• Same data at county resolution tells a much more nuanced story — both colors mixed throughout nearly every state, with urban/rural patterns emerging clearly.
• Takeaway — the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). Aggregating data into different spatial units produces different patterns. Cartographic scale is a design choice with analytical consequences.
• This is the payoff slide — it’s why geographers care about scale and why remote sensing at different resolutions (Landsat 30 m, MODIS 250 m, AVHRR 1 km) gives different answers to the same question.