Same Votes, Different Seats
by Anonymous · ⭐ 1 · 🍴 0
🗺 25 people are seated, with the vote fixed at 🧑🦱 15 : 🧑🦲 10. Simply changing the “lines” dividing them into five groups of five can produce seat results of 5:0 · 3:2 · 4:1 · 2:3 — without changing a single vote. 🗑 “Wasted votes” explain why: no matter how the map is divided, 10 votes are always wasted, and the side that wastes fewer of its own votes wins more seats relative to its vote share. 🎯 At the end, guess which map created each result just by looking at the outcome.
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About this app
Same Votes, Different Seats is an interactive civic education app about how district boundaries can change election outcomes without changing any votes. It places 25 voters into five districts of five, compares four ways of drawing the districts, and shows results ranging from a 5–0 sweep to a 2–3 reversal. A wasted-vote view and a four-question quiz help explain why the distribution of unused votes affects the seat result.
Use cases
- Students learning about elections and representation
- Teachers introducing districting and voting systems
- Civic groups discussing electoral fairness
- Anyone exploring how boundaries affect seats
Features
- Compare four district maps with fixed totals of 15 and 10 votes
- See district-by-district winners and seat totals
- Calculate wasted votes, including surplus votes and losing votes
- Compare each side’s percentage of wasted votes
- Complete a quiz matching seat or waste results to the correct map