Disruptive digital solutions is rewiring the DNA of Banking, The future of banking; digitization and collaboration as growth accelerants, Star Quality Speaker Line-Up at Africa Tech Festival 2020. Which imaginary states were easy to gerrymander using packing, and which ones were more difficult? What about the distribution of voters made a state easier to stack? These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. But let's back up a moment — how does gerrymandering work, after all? How do the shapes of your gerrymandered districts using stacking vary compared to the ones you drew fairly? The rules are the same whether you’re an elected member of the state legislature in Oregon, part of an appointed commission in Montana, or part of an independent nonpartisan redistricting commission in the state of California. Experts in the fields of political science, statistics, and sociology have deemed four of these districts as some of “the most gerrymandered” districts in the United States, in part because they are the least compact. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. measure geometric compactness of districts. “convex hull,” “length/width ratio”). Unsurprisingly, with bigger numbers, this can snowball. As a “gerrymanderer,” you should feel free to. An ideal district should be convex and compact, not long and thin (“dispersed”), or have any projections or dents (“indentations”) in it. U.S. Constitution did not forbid gerrymandering, not, he wrote, for the judicial branch to decide, intended to give Republicans the advantage. What would you look for? It mostly involves "packing" and "cracking" — packing opposing party voters together into one district, where their votes will be diluted by already being among the majority; and cracking apart blocs of opposing party voters into other districts, where their votes will be outnumbered by the other party. In 2016, Republican David Lewis, a member of North Carolina's General Assembly’s redistricting committee, came out and said he intended to give Republicans the advantage, per The New York Times. Are they compact? Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Is there a way to tell whether districts were drawn to intentionally disadvantage voters of a certain race, political party, or religion? Districts in gerrymandering states are contiguous even if parts of a district are only connected by a single square or are touching at the corners. Try to pack the groups of open-circle voters into one or two districts, so that filled-circle voters win more districts than they should under a fair redistricting plan. Most of the gerrymandering that people get upset about is of the Option 3 variety. In this activity, you’ll be challenged with a series of district-drawing puzzles, each of which is designed to convey a redistricting rule or practice. The nation's highest court releases its biggest decisions at the end of June, and the 2019 session is no different. This scenario is more realistic; voters live in different population densities throughout the state. In other words, districts don’t really have to be contiguous. More so? Your challenge is to draw fair districts for each of the following imaginary states, where each dot represents a block of 10,000 voters. ], In 2017 alone, the U.S. Supreme Court heard cases against the states of Virginia, Alabama and North Carolina following redistricting informed by the 2010 census. For these puzzles, you must try to draw your districts to increase the influence of one group of voters over the other, helping them win more districts in future elections. Ariel Zych is Science Friday’s education director. Every state does redistricting a little bit differently, but there are some general rules that most states use to guide the process. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Divide each of the following states into the assigned number of contiguous districts, without dividing blocks of squares that are the same color. Split the clusters of voters into different districts so that the filled-circle voters have a majority in every district. In that spirit, you may only draw districts by tracing along the gray lines in the following challenges. Most states don’t have explicit laws about this ideal, but many recent and historical cases have been brought to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the U.S. Constitution protects this premise. Just like real redistricting, every one of these puzzles has more than one correct solution. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. These gerrymandered maps can discriminate on the basis of party, race or other pieces of identity politics. In short, lots of different mapping tactics are used for redistricting, and no, the U.S. Supreme Court has found that many of the resulting maps are unconstitutional and discriminatory in nature. Polsby-Popper, Boyce-Clark, Reock) or how they are measured (e.g. Here are the new rules: You’ll use the same three states you used in the fairness challenges above, with the same requirements for district number. This state, like all states, contains voters who tend to vote a certain way on key issues or political party candidates. With gerrymandering, those three districts could be drawn so that the first two each had six Orange Party voters, and only four Purple Party voters; while the third had seven Purple Party voters and only three Orange Party voters. Gerrymandering is quite old. As of this writing, the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on Gill v. Whitford, a case that will determine whether gerrymandering based on the political party is something that the U.S. Supreme Court can pass judgment on, and if so, whether it is permitted under the U.S. Constitution. Were some states easier to stack than others? The rules are the same whether you’re an elected member of the state legislature in Oregon, part of an appointed commission in Montana, or part of an independent nonpartisan redistricting commission in the state of California. There are many mathematical ways to measure geometric compactness of districts that take the shape of formulas or equations, often named for their creators (e.g. All Rights Reserved. Contiguity is a simple step to fairness of representation by ensuring that voters in a district have at least one thing in common—they are relatively near to one another. It goes without saying that this could have significant consequences in upcoming elections. Based on your gerrymandering, are there distributions of voter populations in some states that make them more vulnerable to unfair gerrymandering practices? Is it possible to make a rule or law that can be applied consistently to districts to determine if districts have been unfairly gerrymandered? Try to pack the groups of open-circle voters into one or two districts, so that filled-circle voters win more districts than they should under a fair redistricting plan. If you are responsible for redistricting, you should adhere to three traditional principles: contiguity, compactness, and population equality. Split the clusters of voters into different districts so that the filled-circle voters have a majority in every district. How? On Thursday, the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 ruling, which found that the U.S. Constitution did not forbid gerrymandering. Here we go. Roberts joined the court's conservative members Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh in the decision. long and thin (“dispersed”), or have any projections or dents (“indentations”) in it. that take the shape of formulas or equations, often named for their creators (e.g. “convex hull,” “length/width ratio”). What about compared to the ones you gerrymandered using cracking? Join in on the discussion in SciFri’s Educator’s Lounge! Experts generally agree that a district is NOT contiguous if parts of it are barely touching or connected to one another by thin lines. The length/width ratio is the simplest measure of compactness. They’re also a lot like the political practice of gerrymandering. Every state does redistricting a little bit differently, but there are some general rules that most states use to guide the process. In all cases, the court ruled that using race to guide redistricting was unconstitutional. Experts generally agree that a district is NOT contiguous if parts of it are barely touching or connected to one another by thin lines. Created by Bluecadet, While each state is represented by exactly two senators (50 x 2 = 100), the nation’s 435 voting representative seats in congress are allocated to states according to the size of each state’s population—more representatives go to states with larger populations, and a minimum of one representative goes to states with small populations, like South Dakota and Vermont. And why is it such a big deal? For these puzzles, you must try to draw your districts to increase the influence of one group of voters over the other, helping them win more districts in future elections. How do the shapes of your gerrymandered districts vary compared to the ones you drew fairly? Cracking Puzzle Was that true for all states? But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Join in on the discussion in SciFri’s Educator’s Lounge! These redistricting puzzles are kind of like Sudoku. So grab a pencil, print out a Redistricting Challenges Sheet, and get scrolling. Do you think it would be possible to use district shapes to help you determine whether a state had gerrymandered its districts by stacking, packing, or cracking? For these challenges, you will be charged with adhering to one of the three traditional redistricting principles as you draw districts in simplified “states.” Many state laws offer guidelines about how to “draw within the lines” to maintain pre-existing communities of interest, jive with natural topography like rivers and mountains, and stay within county or state lines. Teachers who field tested this resource had the following advice for teachers adopting this resource: Where do fish go when the water gets warm? open-circle voters should win one of the three districts, and filled-circle voters should win the other two. For an example of gerrymandering, let’s go back to our small example state where one third of voters are open-circle voters and the other two thirds of voters are filled-circle voters. Some legislators are pretty open about their intent when drawing districts, too. An ideal district should be convex and compact. In 2000, the parties in power were divided almost evenly in California, including Independents. Here’s what that could look like: The following puzzles challenge you to redefine district boundaries using one of three common gerrymandering approaches: Like most (but not all) elections, these puzzles assume a winner-take-all election, meaning that in any given district, the party or candidate with the most votes wins the entire district. As you discovered in your gerrymandering puzzles, gerrymandered districts tend to look weird because they are often neither compact nor contiguous. Can you guess which ones may have been gerrymandered? Redistricting is the process mandated by the constitution to ensure fair representation as the population changes. , a case that will determine whether gerrymandering based on the political party is something that the U.S. Supreme Court can pass judgment on, and if so, whether it is permitted under the U.S. Constitution. Stacking Puzzle This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. The term refers to a strategy of drawing electoral districts in order to give one party an advantage. This process of manipulating district boundaries to give an advantage to a specific party or group is called gerrymandering. Divide each of the following states into the assigned number of districts so that each district has an equal population size. This ensures that no vote is more valuable than any other in determining the outcome of an election.

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