Our elections have math at their core, and we want children — our future leaders — to understand these fundamentals. ”Election math” is also a great illustration of how you may find math in places you might not think to look … like politics!
This quick review will help you and your children understand the basics of the math involved with national elections and our U.S. government. If you come across words or ideas that you’d like to learn more about, Congress for Kids is a great resource.
Basics of the U.S. Government and Elections
We hold elections for two branches of the U.S. federal government: the executive and the legislative. The executive branch includes the president and vice president. These two offices are considered to represent every person in the United States.
The legislative branch, known as Congress, includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. Members of Congress represent only the residents of their state.
Federal elections happen every two years. The president is elected in years whose last two digits are divisible by four. The last digits of the years 2016 and 2020, for example, are 16 and 20. Since 16 and 20 are both divisible by 4, 2016 and 2020 are presidential election years. Congressional elections (also called midterm elections because they occur near the middle of the president’s term) happen on even years that aren’t divisible by four (2018, 2022 etc.).
States’ Representation in Congress
The U.S. is a “representative democracy,” in which citizens vote for representatives to make laws and rule the country on their behalf. The Founding Fathers used math to create our democracy so that its people would get fair representation.
Let’s start with the House of Representatives, which has a fixed number of 435 “seats,” each seat filled by a “member” of the House.
Every 10 years, the federal government counts the number of U.S. residents; this is called the U.S. Census. Using a mathematical formula, the federal government “apportions” a number of representatives to each state based on the Census’ population data. “Apportion” is a mathematical term meaning, “to divide and distribute according to a plan.”
The more people who live in a state, the more representatives the state has.
For example, in the 2010 Census, California had an estimated 37,253,956 residents. The government apportioned 53 representatives for the state. By contrast, Wyoming, with a population of 563,626, has only one representative.
Ratios Make a Difference, Too
To obtain the ratio of representatives to residents, use division. (A ratio is “a comparison of two numbers by division.”)
Since, in 2010, California had 53 representatives and a population of 37,253,956, the ratio of California representatives to residents is one for every...
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