Weekly Assignments
Week 1 pre-class: a short video from CGP Grey about the electoral college
Week 1 assignment: how many votes decide the presidency?
In 2000, George Bush received 271 electoral votes while Al Gore received 267. If Gore had won any state that Bush won, Gore would have reached 270 electoral votes instead of Bush and would have been the president. The closest state that Bush won was Florida, where he officially won the state's electoral votes by winning the popular vote by just 537 votes. Therefore, we can say that Bush won the presidency by just 537 votes in Florida (even though he lost the national popular vote by more than 500,000 votes).
Your job is to do a similar analysis of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and answer the questions below in an essay or video.
In 2020, Biden won the presidency and won the national popular vote by more than 7,000,000 votes. But Trump could have won the presidency by getting far less than 7,000,000 more votes in just a handful of states. So how much did Biden really win by and in which states? (Wikipedia, AP, NYTimes)
In 2016, Trump won the presidency even though he lost the national popular vote by more than 2,800,000 votes. But Clinton could have beaten him by getting some more votes in just a handful of states. So how much did Trump really win by and in which states? (Wikipedia, AP, NYTimes)
In general, which states seem to be the “important” ones? Do the votes of the people in these states matter more than in others?
I've given you links that might be useful; I recommend picking just ONE source (Wikipedia OR AP OR NYTimes) and using that source for each election. If you'd like to use another source (CNN, Fox News, or something else) that is fine as well. Cite your sources at the end of your essay/video (I don't care about the format).
Week 1 assignment: submit your essay/video using this google form by 1/5 at 1pm EST
I don't expect this essay to be very long - I think 1 or 2 pages should be enough, but I don't really care about the length as long as the questions are answered.
Feel free to ask me questions or talk to others in the course, but make sure the work submitted is your own!
[SMC students only]
Week 1 in-class: let's anaylze recent election data in groups!
Week 1 in-class: let's vote on ice cream! We'll analyze our results using six different voting systems. There are many others; these should give you a taste of some of them.
The six systems we'll discuss today are:
First past the post (FPTP)
Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) [Also called Ranked Choice Voting or RCV]
Borda Count
Condorcet*
Approval
Score
Week 1 in-class annotated notes with detailed descriptions of the voting methods
Math180 Day 1.pdfWeek 2 interactive: To build a better ballot by Nicky Case. Spend 60-90 minutes reading and interacting!
Week 2 assignment: voting methods and voting method criteria
The pdf of the assignment is attached. Submit it here by 1pm EST on 1/12/21. There are 8 separate questions. You should be able to answer and explain each in at most a paragraph. You should answer each question separately (i.e. don't write one essay like you did in assignment 1). Let me know if you have questions!
MATH180WritingAssignment2.pdfWeek 2 in-class annotated notes with detailed descriptions of Hamilton apportionments
Math180 Day 2 Annotated.pdfWeek 3 assignment: apportionment and gerrymandering
The pdf of the assignment is attached. Submit it here by 1pm EST on 1/19/21. There are 5 separate questions. You should be able to answer and explain each in at most a paragraph. You should answer each question separately (i.e. don't write one essay like you did in assignment 1). Let me know if you have questions!
MATH180WritingAssignment3.pdfWeek 3 in-class activity: how gerrymandered is northern Indiana?
source for voting data; measurements given by IGA Polsby-Popper, efficiency gap
Week 3 in-class annotated notes on gerrymandering
MATH 180 Day 3.pdf