In most elections in the United States, elected officials are voted in by the number of voting districts they win. Voting districts can be as large as a neighboring state or as small as a few blocks in a city.
Below are four different regions divided into voting districts. The green dots represent voters for one party and the yellow dots represent voters for a different party. In order to win an election, the candidate must win more districts than the other.
For each region, think about the following questions.
- How many voters for the yellow party are in this region?
- How many voters for the green party are in this region?
- How many districts will the yellow party win?
- How many districts will the green party win?
Which party will win the election for this region? (Note: the party with the most districts will win the election)
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Region 4
After looking at all four regions, what do you notice about how the districts, not the voters, decide an election?
What you might have noticed is that even though the green party had more supporters, because of how the voting districts were drawn, the yellow party won more districts, allowing the yellow party to win the region. This is called gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering is when voting districts are manipulated to favor one political party. The term comes from a former governor of Massachusetts named Elbridge Gerry. He created a voting district to favor his political party that resembled the shape of a salamander.
Using a piece of scrap paper or an online tool, draw voting districts in the following regions to make voting as close to equal as possible. For each region, every voter must be in a district and districts can be any size.
Draw three districts in the region below
Now, draw five voting districts in the region below.
Was it hard to create voting districts that felt fair? How did looking at patterns and district sizes help you make your decisions?
Reflection
How could you adapt this activity to help your students see how political scientists use patterns to make decisions fairly or unfairly?