After Mitt Romney’s big win yesterday in New Hampshire, it remains to be seen if the Republican presidential nomination race now will quickly finish, or whether the anti-Romneys —  Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Santorum, Perry and the rest — can drag it out.  Either way, to help follow the action, here (below) is a special treat courtesy of our techno-wizard friends at ESRI in Redlands, California, the country’s leading  experts in cutting-edge Geospatial technology.

It is an interactive “smart map” of this year’s presidential primary contest.  Click on the different buttons (the map, the dates, the state names) and see what happens.

Smart maps like this (or “Geospatial Information Systems”) are one of the great innovation of our time, from the navigation systems in our cars to Google Earth to the data-rich displays on CNN and other TV networks to the GIS grids used by governments for complex infrastructure planning. This relatively simple one just scratches the surface.  Click here to see a few more.

Presidential Primary Election Calendar Map
Use this timeline map to see the sequence of US primaries and caucuses in 2012. Clicking on a state will show you the number of registered voters and their political attitudes.