In honor of elections occurring across the country today, we thought we would take a look at colors associated with political parties.

While the donkey and elephant had been associated with Democrats and Republicans respectively since the 1870’s, it was not until 1976, when NBC graphics department debuted its first election map on the air, with bulbs that turned red for Carter-won states (Democratic), and blue for Ford (Republican).

After the 2000 election, the color red became associated with the Republican Party and blue symbolic for the Democrats. Thus, red and blue became fixed in the media and in many people’s minds, despite the fact that no “official” color choices had been made by the parties.

Political associations of colors, used to represent either officially or unofficially a political party, may vary from country to country.

A few samples of colors and affiliations are:

• Black is primarily associated with anarchism
• Grey is often used to represent Independent politicians
• Red has widely been associated by the mass media with the Republican Party, despite the fact that the Republican Party is a conservative-leaning party
• Blue is usually associated with conservative parties
• Green is for green politics and environmentalist movements worldwide
• Orange is the traditional color of the Christian democrats
• White today is mainly linked to pacifism
• Yellow is most commonly associated with liberalism in Europe

Vote November 4th!