Project 3 How Much Does My Vote

Count?
Assignment Description
If you are a US citizen and are 18 years old, you can vote! But the question is
who are you voting for? Does your vote count as much as someone who lives in
another state? How about another county? In this project, you are going to do some
research into the elections for the House of Representative, and figure out how much
does my vote count?

Materials Needed:

The U.S. Census database, for the years 2000 and 2010, located at:
http://www.census.gov/2010census/)
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Word
Graphics program such as Microsoft Paint or any other way to color in a
picture

Part 2 Please attempt to create the different gerrymandering maps using computer
software such as Paint or PowerPoint. If you cannot get this to work, you may color it
in by hand and scan it/take a picture of it to include in your project.

Learning objectives:
By the end of this project, students will be able to:
1. Locate and report information collected from the U.S. Census, including:
a. Population
b. House of Representative representation
2. Calculate the number of House of Representatives for each state, using the
following methods:
a. Hamilton
b. Jefferson
c. Webster
d. Hill-Huntington
3. Compare/contrast the Representative calculation methods
4. Calculate

a. population change
b. percentage
5. Experiment with gerrymandering a map to change the Congressional Districts for
a state.

The following class objectives are met through this project:

1. You will locate, critically read, and evaluate information to base conclusions
about given information in order to solve problems. (FS1), (QL1), (QL2),(QL3),
(AS1), (AS2)
2. You will solve for one or more variables from available information using
deductive reasoning skills. (FS3), (QL1),(QL2),(QL3),(QL4),(AS1)
3. You will be able to represent and solve real-world problems employing proper
problem solving strategies.(FS3), (QL1),(QL2),(QL3), (AS1), (AS2)
4. You will critically evaluate a quantitatively-based argument using deductive
reasoning and explain your arguments.(FS10), (QL4), (AS3)

Part 1 Where Does My Vote

Count the Most?
To start out your research into your vote for the House of Representatives, you
need to pick 4 different states where you might want to live, as well as Indiana. These
can be the same states as you looked at in Project 1, or 4 other states that seem
interesting to you.
Using the 2010 US Census Data (http://www.census.gov/2010census/) , determine their
population in 2010, as well as the total US Population. Use the Census website to also
record how many seats each state had in 2010 in the House of Representatives. This
information can be found at https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br08.pdf.
Example: For the states Indiana and Ohio, the table would look like this:
State
Population
Representatives

Indiana
6,483,802
9

Ohio
Total
11,536,504
16
25

Fill in the table below with your 4 states and Indiana.

State
Population
Representatives

Indiana

State 2 -

State 3 -

State 4 -

State 5 -

Total

Calculate
Using the following methods, calculate the expected number of representatives for each
state. Remember, there are a total of 435 total representatives and the standard divisor
for the US is 710,000. Create a new worksheet and rename it with the method you use
on that sheet (i.e. one sheet for Hamilton, one for Jefferson, etc.)
o
o
o
o

Hamilton
Jefferson
Webster
Hill-Huntington

State
Indiana
Population
Actual
Representation
Hamilton
Method
Jefferson
Method
Webster
Method
Hill-Huntington
Method

State 2 -

State 3 -

State 4 -

State 5 -

Total

Question Which method(s) gives numbers that match the actual representation?
Did any method give you values that were very far off of the actual representation? If
so, why do you think that is?

Calculate
One thing is interesting is how the representation can change over time, due to
population and other information. Lets see how these states have faired, comparing
the actual representation in 2000 versus 2010.
Using the 2000 Census Data, located at
https://www.census.gov/population/apportionment/data/2000_apportionment_results.ht
ml recalculate the expected number of representatives for each state with the 2000
population counts, using the different methods. Make sure to update the actual year
2000 appointments for your calculations.
State
Indiana
Population
Actual
Representation
2000
Hamilton
Method
Jefferson
Method
Webster
Method
Hill-Huntington
Method

State 2 -

State 3 -

State 4 -

State 5 -

Total

Question Which, if any, of your states gained/lost representatives between 2000 and 2010?
How did that compare to the population increase/decrease for that state?
If you want your vote to count the most, which state would you choose to live in and
why?

Calculate
Lets take a look at the fine state of Ohio for the years 2000 and 2010. Using the
previous websites, look up the population and actual representation for the years 2000
and 2010, and complete the chart below.

Ohio
2000
Population
Actual
Representation
Hamilton
Method
Jefferson
Method
Webster
Method
Hill-Huntington
Method

2010

Question How much did the population change in Ohio between 2000 and 2010?
What percentage of the population of the US was made up by Ohio, in 2000 and 2010?
What percentage of the actual representation was made by Ohio, in 2000 and 2010?
Which do you think was a better actual representation for the state of Ohio 2000 or
2010? Why?
Which of the methods give you different results for 2010 and 2000 for Ohio?
Why do you think the number of representatives changed between 2000 and 2010 for
the state of Ohio?

Part 2 What the Heck is

Gerrymandering?
Before we start talking about redistricting and gerrymandering, were going to play a
game! Go and play the ReDistricting Game to get practice at some of the important
considerations with redistricting and gerrymandering
http://www.redistrictinggame.org/game.php

If you recall, the US is divided into 435 Congressional districts. Each district has a
population of about 710,000 individuals. In Part 1, you calculated how many
districts/representatives were in your chosen states.
Lets look at Indiana now. Indiana has 92 counties and 9 Congressional Districts.
Counties are indicated in blue (Democrat) and red (Republican) below for the 2012
Congressional race. Some of the largest cities in Indiana are indicated on the map.

Calculate
How many Democratic counties are there? Republican?
What percentage of counties are Democratic and Republican?

Question List at least one observation about the state of Indiana.

Can you come up with any hypothesis about why certain counties are Democratic or
Republican?

Were going to simplify some things for our own practice. Indiana has 9 Congressional
Districts. In 2012,

2 are Democratic, 7 are Republican

There are 92 counties
For our example, we are going to pretend that each county has approximately
the same population
Calculate

On the following map, color 9 Congressional Districts so that there are 7 Republican
and 2 Democratic. Remember, one person-one vote means that there must be at least
10 but no more than 11 counties in each District. Additionally, a districts geographical
span must be contiguous (no Island counties floating around).
For this activity, you can use the JPEG file attached to this homework assignment and
color in the counties using a program like Microsoft Paint, or color them by hand and
take a picture of your results and include it in the homework.

Now, YOU get to have your hand at gerrymandering.

Can you gerrymander the Congressional Districts in order to give the Democrats at
least one more Congressional seat (i.e. 6 Republican Districts and 3 Democratic
Districts)? How about 4 Democratic Districts and 5 Republican?

Question Explain one reason for gerrymandering, and one reason against gerrymandering.