Computer Game Shows Voters How to Win the Redistricting Game

[AtomicKitten]

link to game: http://www.redistrictinggame.com/

Computer Game Shows Voters How to Win at Redistricting
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11043075

Morning Edition, June 14, 2007 · Maybe you want to throw your incumbent representative out of office in the next election. Well it may not be easy, especially if you live in a state where redistricting has lead to ultra-safe seats for incumbents. A group of computer programmers at the University of Southern California developed a videogame to explain the process and show constituents how to win.

Congress Plays Redistricting Game
http://gamepolitics.com/2007/06/15/congress-plays-redistricting-game/

An online game developed at the University of Southern California’s Game Innovation Lab explores how redistricting - the redrawing of Congressional district boundaries - can essentially disenfranchise voters.

The Redistricting Game, playable online, was recently shown to members of Congress by Rep. John Tanner (D-TN). Tanner realizes that his colleagues are unlikely to be swayed from the practice, which is less politely known as gerrymandering. The Tennessee Democrat told NPR’s Andrea Seabrook:

You’re asking people - and I realize this - to give up an awful lot of power.

Seabrook added:

Maybe if voters play The Redistricting Game and have fun gaming the system themelves, they’ll see how the system is gaming them and then maybe they’ll demand change.

[krispos42]

1. Yeah, now they can jigger the numbers on a laptop

A la Tom DeLay.

I think the only way around this is to have districts were you are only allowed a maximum of perhaps six or eight 'sides' on the perimeter. A 'side' would be either a straight line between two distinct geographical points or a segment of a state/national border, river, or the shoreline of a major body of water.

[CK_John]

2. Does this game show the rules for each of the 50 states? I doubt it. We keep getting sucked in to

meme that the States play little or any role in government. Another round of the Federalist Society, one set of rules coming from a strong central government.

[BadgerKid]

3. Dug up this census article

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Do you have a shower? Does your toilet flush? How is your mental condition? Those are just some of the questions on the long version of Census 2000 that have some people complaining to their congressional delegations.

...

"We want as accurate a count as possible, but I can understand why people don't want to give over that information to the government," Bush said Thursday during a campaign stop in Milwaukee. "And if I have the long form, I'm not sure I would, either."

The Texas governor stopped short of advising people not to complete the form. But he said, "If they're worried about the government intruding into their personal lives, they ought to think about it."

...

Democrats have long supported incorporating a statistical method known as sampling to derive census numbers. Sampling would use the forms that are returned to estimate populations with traditionally low response rates, such as minority groups in cities. Republican lawmakers have opposed sampling, fearing it could force a redrawing of political boundary lines to their disadvantage.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/03/31/census.01/

[BlueManDude]

4. Unfortunately the Congressional Black Caucus often does the right wing's bidding on this issue

allowing themselves to be gerrymandered into all black noncompetetive districts, in which many will get 85%+ of the vote.