
Ugly Gerry – Font created from congressional districts - rgardaphe
https://uglygerry.com/
======
yholio
In case it's not entirely clear, the font ridicules the practice of
gerrymandering: toying with electoral district borders so that the results
favor the incumbent while corralling the voters of the adversaries.

So extensive is this practice that the resulting shapes can approximate any
letter of the alphabet. Quite readable too.

~~~
swebs
There's currently a push to take it to the supreme court so it can be stopped
once and for all.

Archive link because the Baltimore Sun doesn't like Europe:

[http://archive.is/a3mMR](http://archive.is/a3mMR)

~~~
sergiotapia
If they do this doesn't this mean 5 cities will dictate who is in charge of
the country?

~~~
jascii
I'm not quite sure I follow you, could you elaborate?

~~~
Spivak
One of the arguments in favor of the electoral college is that it boosts the
voice of people who are in areas with lower population density. This is to
ensure that minority interests are respected and taken into account by
presidential hopefuls.

Without this protection the voices of people who live outside the 5 major
metropolitan areas simply wouldn't matter and candidates would have no reason
to listen to their issues and have no repercussions for hurting them to favor
city-dwellers.

This would be bad. Very bad. A straight population vote ends up being a
scheduling algorithm for issues where rural interests have unbounded wait
time.

One could say that the solution of weighting rural votes higher is a clunky
system but any replacement voting system needs to take this into account as
those small towns are where almost all of our primary industry is.

~~~
jethro_tell
This is why we have the senate, two votes per state even though alaska has
less people than the city of Seattle.

The point of the electoral college was that news travels slowly so voting for
a rep to vote for you to represent your district was the right thing to do.
Now, everyone can vote for themselves and probably should and we can have it
counted in a day or two.

~~~
mattbk1
The original intent of the two chambers of congress was that the Senate would
represent the state (government) itself, and the House would represent the
people living in the state. It wasn't until later that senators were elected
by the people rather than appointed by the governor.

If the electoral college was apportioned correctly and the size of the house
not artificially capped, there wouldn't be any reason to compare "voting
power" of low-population vs high-population states.

------
AndrewHampton
FiveThirtyEight did a great podcast series on gerrymandering in 2017 [1]. It
turns out to be a much more complicated topic than I expected. Some
gerrymandering is even legally required to ensure proper representation of
minority groups even if they live in somewhat distributed communities.

1: [https://fivethirtyeight.com/tag/gerrymandering-
podcast/](https://fivethirtyeight.com/tag/gerrymandering-podcast/)

~~~
jandrese
Which is so hilariously misguided it might be taken as a form of racism. By
lumping minorities into a single candidate they create a token representative
who has a very safe seat but no power in the state senate and allow all other
candidates to effectively ignore that minority entirely. They don't have to
worry about angering 5% of their electorate and losing the next election by a
2% margin.

~~~
Spivak
Now let's take the other extreme. You split the minority population among 10
different seats where their population in each district is so small that their
interests are ignored entirely in each one.

~~~
kelnos
That's what coalition-building (an important feature of other governmental
structures used outside the US) comes in. You generally have a bunch of small
minority groups all over the place, but if they work together ("hey, we'll
support your group's big issue if you support ours"), they can form a large
enough voting bloc that their issues get traction.

------
toddsiegel
It says tweet your reps. To be clear, you should probably contact your _state_
rep about this (and send an email, not a tweet). They have the power to do
something about it.

This is very important, esp. in light the recent US Supreme Court decision on
this subject[1]. Gerrymandering creates safe districts that make primaries
hold increasingly more weight then general elections, which is leading, in a
significant way, toward our increasingly hyper-partisan politics in the US.

In some states this also heavily tilts the balance of power to one party over
the other.

The bottom line is this. Fairer redistricting will lead to more competitive
races, which will lead to less partisan, saner politics with more compromise.
(Oh dear god I hope!)

Related: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/voters-are-
stripping...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/voters-are-stripping-
partisan-redistricting-power-from-politicians-in-anti-gerrymandering-
efforts/2018/11/07/2a239a5e-e1d9-11e8-b759-3d88a5ce9e19_story.html?utm_term=.209cfc5a9e3d)

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/politics/supreme-
court...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/us/politics/supreme-court-
gerrymandering.html)

~~~
tunesmith
More competitive? Or more representative of the overall population? Because
those two things are at odds.

Say you have a state that is split 55/44, and has nine districts. Do you want
nine districts each at 55/44, meaning 9-0? That's more competitive, but less
representative of the state. Or do you want five districts for one, and four
for the other? That's more representative of the state, but less competitive.
Redistricting is hard.

(I suspect my scenario is a false choice if you wrestle with the math enough,
but I'm not sure. I prefer the Wisconsin test that we all thought Justice
Kennedy would decide in favor of, but then he took the coward's way out,
probably corrupt too.)

~~~
lsaferite
My understanding of Gerrymandering is to specifically have the outcome of 9-0
though. The natural distributions would make a natural outcome of 9-0 highly
unlikely without rigging the district lines.

~~~
endlessbeing
Actually, I think gerrymandering aims to have the result be more like 7-2
consistently, where 7 is the party with less actual representation.
Gerrymandering aims to put all of the opponent's voters in the smallest number
of districts possible, while spreading out your own base.

The result is that the opponent wins fewer districts with over 90% of the vote
where you win more districts with 55% or 60% of the vote.

~~~
c3534l
Non-representative outcomes is a symptom of Gerrymandering, ont the goal of
it. The reason for gerrymandering a district varies, but overall it tends to
preserve the status quo. Those in power can use it to disenfranchise a group
of people, or they can use it to create safe districts for party leaders.
Gerrymandering should be thought of as a tool. The illustrations popular
online showing how gerrymandering can be used to produce paradoxical
representation have done a lot to raise awarenss, but it's also made people
confused about what it is. Gerrymandering is a tool, not a goal.

------
zw123456
I think that a solution this problem as well as many others like undo
influence, too much money needed and so on, could be solved by increasing the
number of representatives. I believe that the only stipulations in the
constitution is that each state must have at least one and that a
representative cannot represent less than 30K citizens. The number was frozen
35 in 1911 by the house, but they could change that if they wanted to without
changing the constitution.

The reason I think this would help on a number of levels is as follows 1)
Gerrymandering becomes more difficult if there are a lot more districts. 2)
influence peddling and lobbying is diluted if there are more representatives.
3) the voter can have more influence and contact with their representative if
their congress person represents a smaller sized constituency.

I think arguments around the size of the building (the capital) are silly, who
cares where they meet, it can be in a stadium, or even better why bother
having them all in Washington DC. it can all be done with telepresence in
todays world and then you as a citizen could go down to say the court house
and sit in the audience as your representatives interact via telepresence.

I get it that perhaps all this seems crazy or whatever, but none of it would
require any changes to the constitution. It could be done by the House itself
with no consent from the Senate or President.

~~~
undersuit
Prior to the Civil War our Representatives voted and worked from the same
desk, the one they had in the Capitol Building in the House Chambers.

Now they have offices and support staff. Why don't we just convert those ~5000
support staff( and their offices ) into a much more representative democracy?

~~~
zw123456
Perfect, I agree completely.

------
Waterluvian
Not saying Ontario's EDs are bias-free but the difference is just day and
night when you've got an independent body delineating them.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Centre_(provincial_ele...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Centre_\(provincial_electoral_district\)#/media/File:Toronto_Centre_in_relation_to_the_other_Toronto_ridings_\(2015_boundaries\).png)

------
TomMckenny
In Wisconsin, the now permanent ruling party won 60% of seats with only 48.6%
of the vote.

The politicized SCOTUS' 5 to 4 decision to up hold that gerrymandering was
hardly a surprise:

[https://www.wpr.org/us-supreme-court-ruling-effectively-
ends...](https://www.wpr.org/us-supreme-court-ruling-effectively-ends-
wisconsin-gerrymandering-challenge)

------
moate
NJ Resident here: I'd like to point out that the "V" shape is basically just
the southern border of the state along the coast.

It could be considered a Gerrymander (I haven't invested the time to look at
district representation) but I will say it could also just be a weird
geographical feature.

Fun project none the less.

~~~
bzbarsky
For what it's worth, a bunch of the things in this font are weird-shaped
because of coastlines...

------
bcatanzaro
Could we reduce the power of gerrymandering by increasing the number of
districts? At the first census, there were 3.9M people and 65 districts. Now
we have 327M people and 435 districts, so the number of people per district
has increased by 12.5X. I would think this makes gerrymandering more
lucrative, since gerrymandering works because of quantization error.

~~~
padobson
Let's do a 100x - 43,500 districts. This would probably fix Citizens United
too, it'd be really expensive to buy 43,500 congress members.

~~~
slim
why not 327M district? (direct democracy)

~~~
padobson
Mob rule is not what you want. It's terrifying.

What you want is a slow projection of the will of the people onto the seats of
power. That's why separation of powers is so brilliant.

Judges are completely insulated from the people, unelected with lifetime
appointments.

The President - when chosen by a real electoral college rather than the funky
thing the EC has actually evolved into - is more answerable to the will of the
people, but still insulated enough to do the job without the daily whims of
the mob plunging the ship of state into chaos. It takes time and slow
calculated movements to steer the ship of state. We want an executive who can
make those calculations without constant fear of political turmoil.

The Senate, as it was originally designed, is closer to the people but also
insulated. Senators get six years to advocate for the interests of their
state. Before the 17th amendment, they were chosen by the state legislatures
to directly represent the interests of the state as a whole.

And the House is directly answerable to the people, with each member
representing a portion of them - 700k or 70k or 7k. It's the most powerful
part of the government and also the most distributed. It's the beating heart
of democracy and the starting point for all discussion on what constitutes the
rights of the citizens, as directed by the citizens. But it is just a starting
point. How the will of the people filters its way into the senate and the
executive and the judicial branch is the refining process of a representative
republic, the best form of government yet implemented by humans.

------
legitster
If you want to play around with district mapping, 538 has a neat tool:
[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/redistricting-
maps/](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/redistricting-maps/)

Their podcast series is a must if you are remotely interested in the topic.

------
thih9
Technically 'A', 'B', 'R', 'Y', 'Z' letters consist of two districts. Still,
even with fewer single-district letters, the project proves a point.

------
aaronbrethorst
The call to action on the site is to “tweet at your rep.” This isn’t going to
do anything.

Donate to groups that are fighting for unrigging the system, vote for
candidates in off year elections that will help create fairer maps (VA
residents: your vote this November will determine who creates your district
maps).

~~~
jascii
We are discussing it right now, so I would say its already doing something..
Nothing wrong with creating awareness, though other avenues will certainly be
needed before meaningful change will happen.

------
cj
How often is this font redrawn? Where's the changelog?

~~~
uptown
That's a paid upgrade. Please consult with your local Super PAC.

------
dabernathy89
A funny looking district != a gerrymandered district.

[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gerrymandering-strange-
maps_n...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gerrymandering-strange-
maps_n_5a848498e4b0ab6daf454f1e)

I mean, just imagine if every district were a simple polygon. How could that
possibly work with population density variations, minority voter distribution,
physical barriers like mountains and rivers, etc?

------
TomK32
This needs to be coloured in shades of Blue and Red.

~~~
munk-a
Both parties are equally terrible when it comes to gerrymandering, I,
thankfully, vote in a state that is one of seven that has absolutely solved
gerrymandering for all time... Vermont - it's hard to creatively draw
districts when everyone is in the same one.

~~~
mikeash
It should be obvious that you can’t trust any political party with the power
to decide who their own voters will be. It’s not a partisan issue. If
Republicans are doing it more in recent years it’s only because they’ve had
more opportunity.

I’m not usually a “both sides” sort of person, but in this case it’s like
putting a steak in front of a dog and expecting them not to eat it.

------
roland35
I am not surprised to see Ohio is well represented here! We have a
particularly egregious gerrymandered map with 75% Republican representatives
in a state that leans slightly Republican.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio%27s_congressional_distric...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio%27s_congressional_districts)

~~~
bzbarsky
Sure, but note Illinois is also well-represented in the font, this time with
significant Democratic party over-reprentation (13 out of 18, for a state that
is not nearly that skewed in presidential elections, say).

Turns out, gerrymandering gets done by whoever happens to be in power. :(

~~~
roland35
Yes, it does go both ways, I didn't mean to single out the RS!

------
doc_gunthrop
Some time ago I wrote a coding challenge based on the concept of
gerrymandering[0].

[0]:
[https://www.codewars.com/kata/5a70285ab17101627a000024](https://www.codewars.com/kata/5a70285ab17101627a000024)

~~~
Billybobbbonnet
That's fun, I just started & enjoyed the katas from cw and planned to do yours
after skyscraper 6x6

------
hammock
Reminds me of the butterfly alphabet: [https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-
content/uploads/archive/Vm4Dpv...](https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-
content/uploads/archive/Vm4Dpvy9icwn4uhLu8l7_1082134851.jpeg)

Sad there are no examples of the font in a sentence though. Is it readable? If
it was the point would be stronger.

~~~
schoen
You can download the OTF font file from the bottom of the page and try
rendering text in it yourself.

I made a sample for you at
[https://imgur.com/TjqUYQt](https://imgur.com/TjqUYQt)

~~~
hammock
Awesome, thank you!

------
noonespecial
Here's a good explanation with a graphic.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/01/this-...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/01/this-
is-the-best-explanation-of-gerrymandering-you-will-ever-see)

------
jlv2
Massachusetts created Gerrymandering yet we are not represented by a single
glyph. Rewrite them!

[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/where-did-term-
gerrym...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/where-did-term-gerrymander-
come-180964118/)

~~~
benatkin
Massachusetts also has an unusual shape that makes sense on closer inspection,
like I'm guessing some of the glyphs do.

------
dfeojm-zlib
Here's a sample

[https://is.gd/KAduzx](https://is.gd/KAduzx) (.jpg)

------
balthasar
Pointing out the obvious injustice and loss of adjacency imposed on voters in
these districts is the obvious reason for this project but leave it to Hacker
News readers to fixate on the technical aspects of redistricting while
ignoring the political and social reasons which led to this issue.

------
jonnycomputer
The obvious thing to do with this is to print out letters using this font to
send to your representatives.

------
realYitzi
Tweet all the reps... [https://theunitedstates.io/congress-
legislators/legislators-...](https://theunitedstates.io/congress-
legislators/legislators-social-media.json)

------
drummyfish
No Rights Reserved -- this is great, all fonts should be public domain, but I
would love to see actual CC0 attached, otherwise I can't trust it really being
public domain legally, which discourages me from using it.

------
artur_makly
I just love it when deft minimal art...spurs such comprehensive critical
conversation. We need more of this on HN ;-)

------
aarongray
While humorous, a high percentage of these districts look this way due to
rivers and lakes.

~~~
Ambele
I just looked at Florida's districts and the districts all include the rivers
and lakes. Key examples are the Everglades and the St. Johns rivers.

[https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Districts](https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Districts)

------
JimmaDaRustla
Can I get a monospaced version for my IDE?

------
tictoc
This is fun!

------
Endy
This looks cute. Does the author expect to actually bring about any result by
creating it? I see a Twitter link for various reps, but there's no link to any
funded campaign to overturn recent legislation which has enshrined
gerrymandering as the standard practice for districting. Perhaps if there was
a donation link there it might be of more benefit.

On the other hand, a political statement in a font is a very interesting idea.
I hope it helps drive a campaign to normalize legal districting in the future.

~~~
headcanon
Does every political statement need to include all of these things? If I
espouse a political opinion on an online forum like this:

"Gerrymandering is bad and has negative effects on our democracy"

Am I expected to include donation links and organize a Call Your Rep campaign
every time I say something like that? Thats effectively what OP is doing,
making a statement, not trying to singlehandledly solve the issue in question.

~~~
Endy
There's a call to action on the webpage which goes to Twitter; which won't
change anything. If instead there was a donation link, it would be
contributing. Also, saying that on a forum is one thing; taking a stand with
art should be backed by actually trying to do something about it and pointing
people to groups or individuals who are doing more about it than creating art
(no small feat in itself, but not an immediate cause of legal change).

