Does my new chart make sense?

[ciphergoth]

Imagine for a moment that it's 2:30 AM London time on November 5th and like me, you've stayed up late to watch the US elections. Six states have been called so far: Vermont and Virginia for Obama, and Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Kentucky for McCain. You go to my election page and see this diagram:

Does it make sense to you? How could I improve it?

thanks!

Update: wow, a flood of very helpful comments, thanks so much, keep them coming!

Comments

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

You need to understand the electoral college to have a hope of making sense of this diagram, I'm afraid!

[clarisinda.livejournal.com]

I've just read that, and it's still not clear to me.

What do the %s mean?
What exactly do the three vertical lines represent?
Why is Iowa (red) in the middle of the blue states?
When we are close to the point where one or other side wins, how is that represented visually? Is it going to be obvious at a glance who will win, or is that not the point of it?

Sorry if my questions seem naive to you!

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

it is meant exactly so you can see who's winning. I'll go through what you ask about in detail when I produce my next version of the chart!