Party Lines

Undiscovered

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Wnyc, Society & Culture, 805813, Science, History, Friday, Studios

4.6 • 768 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2018

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2016, a North Carolina legislator announced that his party would be redrawing the state’s congressional district map with a particular goal in mind: To elect “10 Republicans and three Democrats.” His reasoning for this? As he explained, he did “not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.” It was a blatant admission of gerrymandering in a state already known for creatively-drawn districts. But that might be about to change. A North Carolina mathematician has come up with a way to quantify just how rigged a map is. And now he’s taking his math to court, in a case that could end up redrawing district lines across the country.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Listener supported WNYC Studios.
0:07.0	This is undiscovered.
0:13.0	Hey, you coming to vote?
0:18.0	Yeah.
0:19.0	Awesome, we're getting on the shuttle right now.
0:21.7	So it's last April, the middle of the afternoon at North Carolina A&T State University.
0:27.3	Though, to be honest, this could kind of be any campus around primary season.
0:31.5	Do you guys want to vote?
0:33.3	Have you voted yet?
0:34.5	You've got this group of student activists standing outside a class building,
0:38.7	and they're trying to convince their fellow students, essentially to cut class and to go vote instead.
0:44.6	Early voting started in North Carolina's congressional primary.
0:48.3	And for the next four hours, the school shuttle is making round-trip runs to the polling place.
0:53.8	Student activists are calling this event roll to the polls.
0:56.8	We try to make it seem as sexy as it can, but really it's just voting and it's just that simple.
1:01.9	That's Braxton Brewington.
1:03.3	He is one of those student activists.
1:06.0	And I'm willing to bet you probably knew somebody, like Braxton in college.
1:09.9	Alex Kerner.
1:12.5	You know, it's the polysy major with, you know, the great handshake and wide smile and you're like, this guy's
1:17.3	totally going to run for office someday. And roll to the polls is Braxton's baby. He passed out
1:23.7	200 flyers about this event, which means at this point he has heard every sad
	...

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