Gerrywandering wins Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ 2024 Congressional App Challenge in Washington’s Fifth District

When asked what inspired the creation of Gerrywandering, the student said, “I was researching for my comparative politics class when I came across a YouTube video about gerrymandering. My professor only glossed over the details, but after watching the YouTube video, I was confused yet intrigued. How can simple electoral boundary manipulation result in landslide victories? According to Issue One, only 10-15% of the seats in the House of Representatives are even considered competitive, partly due to the nature of gerrymandering. Isn’t that the exact opposite of a democracy?

I’m a visual learner and a big fan of mathematical models. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an intuitive visual explanation for gerrymandering online, so I decided to make one myself. I’ve been learning a new programming language called Rust recently, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to explore political science while also sharpening my coding skills.

Furthermore, I wanted the model to be interactive. I saw something about “boids”, computer simulations of the flocking patterns of birds. I realized that boids would be amazing for a simple model of voter behavior. Boids act according to three rules: “Align” movement with local flockmates, “Cohere” towards the center of flocks, and “Separate” from crowded areas. Similarly, voters tend to “Align” opinions with their peers, “Cohere” with their political parties, and “Separate” with their individual agency.

This app combines a novel gerrymandering algorithm with birds’ flocking nature, so I decided to name it ‘Gerrywandering!’”