Gerrymandering 101

I ran across this neat little game where you are in control of re-districting a state.

There are five missions
1. Fundamentals
Learn the basics of redistricting; try to achieve Population Equality, Contiguity, and Compactness.

2. Partisan Gerrymander
Same as mission 1, but try to take a way the a district from the other party.

The essence of a partisan gerrymander is manipulating district lines around a set of voters that will elect your party's candidate. The two principle tactics used in gerrymandering are "cracking' and "packing".

3. Bipartisan Gerrymander

A New Twist The bipartisan gerrymander is a new twist on the partisan gerrymander. Rather than trying to gerrymander the opposing party's incumbents out of office, the political parties effectively strike a bargain in order to maintain the status quo. Also referred to as "incumbent protection," the parties cooperate to protect all existing incumbents and (where possible) to preserve their traditional constituencies.

4. Voting Rights Act

Mission Four reflects the gains made in redistricting fairness by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its later amendments (VRA).

5. Reform Mission

The final mission of the Redistricting Game simulates the reform proposal put forward by U.S. Representative John Tanner (TN). The proposed bill restricts the mapmaker's ability to use partisan and demographic information as to draw congressional districts.

It's pretty fun, and educational. For a few laughs, see what happens when you re-draw the district such that the representative's house is no longer in the district...

Technorati Tags: Gerrymandering
The Redistricting Game