Marginle

About Marginle

Marginle opens on a county map of one state with only the biggest counties reporting, coloured by how they voted. Beside it sits a case file naming the state and the race, with the winning party, the victory margin, the decade and the winner sealed.

You type any year as your guess. Each miss reports more counties on the map and opens the next line of the file, first the winning party, then the margin, the decade and finally the winner's name. Winning in one guess scores five points, down to one point on the fifth.

Every day has three rounds, one each for president, Senate and governor, in three different states. Historical returns from 1865 to 2020 come from a Harvard Dataverse collection and recent ones from state-certified results via OpenElections.

It suits players who follow US politics and history and like reading a map for clues, such as which counties swing or how lopsided a margin looks.

How to play Marginle

1. Look at the county map and the case file: state and race are given.
2. Type a year and press Guess.
3. Each miss reports more counties and unseals the winning party, margin, decade and winner in turn.
4. Name the year within five guesses for points, then move on to the next race.
5. Finish all three races and compare your points.

Screenshots

Tips

• Big city counties reporting first tell you a lot about the era's party coalitions.
• A very lopsided margin often points to a landslide year.
• Use your first guess to split the centuries, then narrow with the decade when it opens.

Questions