550_Project: Redistricting Simulator

Project Description:

Our app allows users to simulate the 2016, 2020 presidential elections and the 2016, 2018, 2020 House elections under customizable district lines, view and compare actual election results, and access a public repository of redistricting configurations. The main motivation is to visualize how gerrymandering/redistricting can affect election results, and to draw meaningful analytics about precinct political preferences across multiple years. For example, campaigners will be able to create voting districts by state to analyze the importance of a given precinct on the elections results, as well as determine which precincts historically vote for which party. Our two datasets on House and presidential elections will be used to identify party discrepancies on the state/federal level. Although the distribution of precincts has no material impact on the outcome of a federal presidential election, we still think an analysis of how districts change from being associated with one party to another would provide insight into where presidential candidates should focus their campaigning effort.