The Math Behind Our Democracy

This topic is split into two workshops:

Workshop 1 - Representation

Workshop 2 - Gerrymandering

Workshop 1

The Math Behind Our Democracy: Representation

Who gets a say in democracy? Why does every vote in Wyoming count double? Representation in the US is skewed based on where you live and who draws your district boundaries. States with small populations have an outsized place in the senate and electoral college. If every state was as big as one person’s vote, the US would look like the map above. In part one, you’ll make maps like these to visualize how changing the data impacts each state - and what that means for democracy.

Workshop 2

The Math Behind Our Democracy: Gerrymandering

Who gets a say in democracy? How do politicians get to pick their voters? When district maps are drawn after every census, they are often designed to benefit one party. Sometimes this allows a minority of voters to elect a majority of seats, like in the map on the far right. In the process, gerrymandering creates voting districts that look more like an inkblot test than a real map. In part two, you’ll find a way to quantify gerrymandering based on both the shapes of districts and how much the outcome of an election differs from the actual votes cast.

Math, Data Visualization, Real-World Applications, High School