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The Math Behind Gerrymandering and Wasted Votes

posted by martyb on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:03PM   
from the safe-borders dept.

rylyeh writes:

From Quanta Magazine:

Simple math can help scheming politicians manipulate district maps and cruise to victory. But it can also help identify and fix the problem.
 
Imagine fighting a war on 10 battlefields. You and your opponent each have 200 soldiers, and your aim is to win as many battles as possible. How would you deploy your troops? If you spread them out evenly, sending 20 to each battlefield, your opponent could concentrate their own troops and easily win a majority of the fights. You could try to overwhelm several locations yourself, but there's no guarantee you'll win, and you'll leave the remaining battlefields poorly defended. Devising a winning strategy isn't easy, but as long as neither side knows the other's plan in advance, it's a fair fight.
 
Now imagine your opponent has the power to deploy your troops as well as their own. Even if you get more troops, you can't win.
 
In the war of politics, this power to deploy forces comes from gerrymandering, the age-old practice of manipulating voting districts for partisan gain. By determining who votes where, politicians can tilt the odds in their favor and defeat their opponents before the battle even begins.

 
Anyone for a game of RISK?

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Original Submission

• Re:What finds balance well? Markets! Re:What finds balance well? Markets! (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 23 2017, @01:35PM (2 children)

  by Runaway1956 (2926) on Monday October 23 2017, @01:35PM (#586316) Journal

  You must not be from Earth. Welcome to our world, stranger. Let me explain something. We never have had, and never will have that mythical "free market". Some very few civilizations in early history, or prehistory, may have enjoyed "free markets", but they are soon abandoned. People demand strong rulers, and said strong rulers subvert those mythical markets immediately, in order to raise money for things like armies, roads, ports, castles, mansions - the list goes on and on. With every addition to the list, someone else chimes in with yet another addition.

  Mankind abhors a free market.

  Parent

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• Redundant. That's already been covered, Bub. Redundant. That's already been covered, Bub. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @05:28PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @05:28PM (#586431)

  Here. [soylentnews.org]

  You're fighting a straw man.

  Parent

  • Re:Redundant. That's already been covered, Bub. (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:06AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:06AM (#586685) Journal

    Oh, yes, that is so INSIGHTFUL!! That's why Microsoft has cooperated so closely with hundreds of other companies, such as Digital Research.

    Nothing was covered in that post, other than some propaganda that you hoped would confuse us.

    Parent