In November 2022, People will vote to resolve who controls the U.S. Home of Representatives. Whereas the follow occurs each two years, this 12 months is especially noteworthy. That’s as a result of as soon as each decade states can redraw the strains of their congressional voting districts. This follow permits gerrymandering, or the sorting of voters into strategic districts to tip elections a technique or one other.
Play the sport here. [Screenshot: The Washington Post]Wrapping your head round gerrymandering and the entire thought of voting districts could be difficult, however mini golf just isn’t. That’s why The Washington Post made an interactive data visualization that transforms the unusual strains of voting districts into utterly absurd, even seemingly unbeatable mini golf programs you can play in your browser.
Play the sport here. [Screenshot: The Washington Post]
The sport begins off easy, in Wyoming, the place a single congressional seat is up for grabs, so there’s a single voting district. The one district is actually the massive rectangle of Wyoming. Sinking a put isn’t any downside in this logical course.
However by the point you attain gap quantity 3, you’re in Ohio, the place Republicans divided Cincinnati (a Democratic stronghold) into three separate districts by means of a method dubbed “cracking.” You get to play a course that begins in a massive, purple, rural space, cuts by means of the center of town by means of a tiny, nearly impassable gate, after which land in additional nation. This course is unnecessary. This map is unnecessary. And that’s the concept. Good luck making par. (I couldn’t!)
Play the sport here. [Screenshot: The Washington Post]Nevertheless, seems to be could be deceiving. You may’t merely look at a map and see gerrymandering each time. Within the case of Oregon, its craggy, tapering edges may seem like gerrymandering at work, however they’re truly born from the pure panorama of the world. In the meantime, Indiana options a clear field wrapping round Indianapolis that seems to be completely goal in its presentation. But in this case the maneuver quarantines the blue-voting metropolis to have a say over just one seat.
Republicans aren’t the one gerrymandering occasion. Democrats have break up Maryland up into a difficult, mutant amoeba maze to maximise blue votes that places just about all different gerrymandering maps to disgrace. However as The Put up factors out, Republicans have a significant advantage in redrawing districts into the subsequent election (together with all sorts of other laws they’re passing to make voting tougher in battleground states).
In any case, it’s absurd that our democracy hangs within the stability of a few zany mini golf programs drawn by politicians. Which is strictly why we have to help legal guidelines that defend voting rights for everybody.
