Seats half full or half empty

Junk Charts 2013-09-24

Kevin Drum shows the following graphic (link) to illustrate where the House stood on authorizing force in Syria.

What interests me is whether the semi-circle concept adds to the chart. It evokes the physical appearance of a chamber, presumably where such a debate has taken place -- although most televised hearings tend to exhibit lots of empty seats.

Kdrum_syria

The half-filled circles in particular do not make peace with me.

Here is a tree map of the same data.

Redo_drumsyria

Notice that legend boxes are unnecessary.

A pie chart with appropriate labeling acts similarly.

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A profile chart produces mixed results:

Redo_drumyria_2b

This version has the advantage of stacking the voting variable. It doesn't do a good job describing future scenarios.