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Show HN: Gerrymandle - Daily puzzle game where you redraw electoral districts

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Re: Show HN: Gerrymandle - Daily puzzle game where you redraw electoral districts

#21

Post by SubiculumCode »

The number of voting members has been strictly capped at 435 since the passage of the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929.

In 1930, there was an average of 294k citizens per Rep. In 2020, there was an average of 761k citizens per Rep. At some points in U.S. history, the ratio was 30k:1.

I am not sure whether having very small districts would help or hurt gerrymandering, because it all depends on spatial constraints and spatial/density autocorrelation. I do think it would be good for the Republic if our representatives cam from a local community where you reasonably expect that might have gone to school with them, or have met them at the coffee shop before, and where they can run a campaign by personally knocking on doors, which can be done if the ratio was like 80k:1.

Re: Show HN: Gerrymandle - Daily puzzle game where you redraw electoral districts

#22

Post by summarybot »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #21

The number of voting members has been strictly capped at 435 since the passage of the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929. In 1930, there was an average of 294k citizens per Rep. In 2020, there was an average of 761k citizens per Rep. At some points in U.S. history, the ratio was 30k:1. I am not sure whether having very small districts would help or hurt gerrymandering, because it all depends on spatial constraints a…

The House of Representatives is already a cacophonous, boisterous coliseum.

Re: Show HN: Gerrymandle - Daily puzzle game where you redraw electoral districts

#23

Post by WalterBright »

Some mathematicians worked out a way to fairly do districting, similar to having one kid cut the cake and the other kid gets first choice:

"A partisan districting protocol with provably nonpartisan outcomes" by Wesley Pegden, Ariel D. Procaccia, Dingli Yu https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.08781

Re: Show HN: Gerrymandle - Daily puzzle game where you redraw electoral districts

#24

Post by [deleted] »

applfanboysbgon wrote: post #12
convolvatron wrote: post #9

very basic issue, its not clear to me how to start a new district, it just extends the old one. I managed to do it accidentally a couple times, but I don't know how

By default, you work on one district at a time. Clicking adds tiles to the current district until the current district is full, then clicking will create a new district. District size is determined per round, described at the top as eg. "draw 5 districts of 4 populated tiles". You can also click a square in the "Districts" section of the header to switch to a different district, including an empty one to create a new…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Gerrymandle - Daily puzzle game where you redraw electoral districts

#25

Post by jrmg »

Tesselation Games’ ‘Berrymandering’ tabletop game is also a fun way to depress yourself - and a fun way to introduce the idea of gerrymandering to friends and family who don’t ‘get’ it - and depress them too!

https://www.tessellationgames.com/

Re: Show HN: Gerrymandle - Daily puzzle game where you redraw electoral districts

#26

Post by SubiculumCode »

summarybot wrote: post #22
SubiculumCode wrote: post #21

The number of voting members has been strictly capped at 435 since the passage of the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929. In 1930, there was an average of 294k citizens per Rep. In 2020, there was an average of 761k citizens per Rep. At some points in U.S. history, the ratio was 30k:1. I am not sure whether having very small districts would help or hurt gerrymandering, because it all depends on spatial constraints a…

The House of Representatives is already a cacophonous, boisterous coliseum.

The House is a group of individuals that are so afraid to defy the president because the President can send a bunch of money to primary any one who disagrees with them. Big districts require a lot of money to run a campaign. Small districts mean you don't need a lot of money, and heck they might already know you. A larger house means more political independence from the bully-pulpit.

And the House is MEANT to be cacophonous and boisterous. Objections based on convenience and space, are not serious in terms of the meaning of the House. Within a decade or two, it will be 1M citizens per House Rep. Adn everyone of them will bought, because you have to be bought to get elected.

Re: Show HN: Gerrymandle - Daily puzzle game where you redraw electoral districts

#27

Post by collinmcnulty »

WalterBright wrote: post #23

Some mathematicians worked out a way to fairly do districting, similar to having one kid cut the cake and the other kid gets first choice: "A partisan districting protocol with provably nonpartisan outcomes" by Wesley Pegden, Ariel D. Procaccia, Dingli Yu https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.08781

An interesting mathematical curiosity, but kinda seems to ignore the political realities that make gerrymandering happen in the first place. If you had the will to make this happen, why would you not just do proportional representation? The modern point of having districts is to gerrymander.

Re: Show HN: Gerrymandle - Daily puzzle game where you redraw electoral districts

#28

Post by amethyst »

cyode wrote: post #10

I could see this being a great activity in a high school civics class. Very creative. One rule that tripped me up is: > If two parties tie in a district, nobody wins it. This isn't realistic as ties don't happen in practice in elections, and some party will end up representing it. But the spirit of the gerrymandering concept is conveyed well enough.

We did these sorts of exercises in my high school social studies class, in Ohio, back in 2002ish. I fear it may have been instructive to some of my classmates rather than warning them of the inherent evils.
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