6.1.1: Preparation 1.5-SJ

Preparation 1.5-SJ: Gerrymandering

(1) Which expressions are ways to write the number 5,200,000? There may be more than one correct answer.

(i) 52 million

(ii) 5.2 billion

(iii) 5.2 million

(iv) Five million, two hundred thousand

(v) Fifty-two million

(vi) 5,200

(2) Estimate the following percentages without using a calculator.

(a) 10.1% of 7,800

(b) 0.99% of 83,583

(c) 20% of 5,008,340

(3) Which expressions are equivalent to \(\dfrac{32}{9}(53 - 31 + 48)\)? There may be more than one correct answer.

(i) \(\dfrac{32}{9}\cdot 53 - \dfrac{32}{9}\cdot 31 + \dfrac{32}{9}\cdot 48\)

(ii) \(\dfrac{32\cdot 53 - 32\cdot 31 + 32\cdot 48}{9}\)

(iii) \(\dfrac{32}{9}(53 - 31 - 48)\)

(iv) \(32\left( \dfrac{53}{9} - \dfrac{31}{9} + \dfrac{48}{9}\right)\)

(v) \(\dfrac{32}{9}\cdot 53 - 31 + 48\)

Introduction to Gerrymandering

The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. U.S. law fixes the total number of U.S. representatives, also called the number of seats in the House, at 435. Seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states according to their population, as determined by the census conducted every ten years. Each state, however, is entitled to at least one Representative. Since 1967, states that are entitled to more than one representative are divided into single-member districts. This means that these states have to be divided into districts that have approximately the same population and each district elects one representative to the House. Because populations change, states typically change their district boundaries after each census.

A state, county or region can be divided into voting districts in such a way as to give unfair advantage to one group of people. This, in turn, puts other groups at a disadvantage. This practice is called gerrymandering and it dates back to the founding of our country. These groups of people can be a political party or an ethnic group. In those cases, we speak of partisan gerrymandering or racial gerrymandering.

In the past 100 years, both the Democratic Party and Republican Party have engaged in partisan gerrymandering. A recent example occurred in the 2018 congressional election in North Carolina. In 2018, the North Carolina congressional map divided the state into thirteen congressional districts. In the election, Democrats won 3 districts, Republicans won 9 districts, and 1 district (9th district) did not seat a winner due to election problems. The map below shows the thirteen districts. The three districts shaded in blue were won by Democrats.

North Carolina Democrats filed a lawsuit asserting that the congressional map used in the 2018 election was unfair to Democratic voters. The map concentrated Democratic voters into three districts, enabling Democrats to easily win these districts, but split the vote of Democrats across other districts, making these districts easier for Republicans to win. In the 2018 election, 3,380,609 people voted. Of all voters, 50.49% voted for Republicans, and 48.30% voted for Democrats.

(4) What percentage of 2018 congressional districts in North Carolina were won by Democrats? Round to the nearest percent.

(5) Given that about 49% of North Carolina voters in 2018 supported Democrats, how many congressional districts should the Democrats have won if the congressional map did not favor either party? Round to the nearest whole number.

In Collaboration 1.5-SJ, we will explore the strategies behind gerrymandering which produce election results that are unfair to specific groups of voters.