Making Democracy Fair: The mathematics of voting and apportionment

Download or read book Making Democracy Fair: The mathematics of voting and apportionment written by Michael de Villiers and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-09-23 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do you know if an election is fair? Or if the result truly represents the choice of the people? In Making Democracy Fair students use elementary mathematical methods to explore different kinds of ballots, election decision procedures, and apportionment methods. In the first half of the book, students are introduced to a variety of alternatives to the "winner take all" strategy used in most elections. Determining which strategy is fairest is usually a very difficult question to answer, and many times the strategy chosen determines the winner. In the second part of the book, students investigate different methods of apportionment. How many representatives from each state will there be in the United States House of Representatives? How do countries using a proportional representation decide on the number of representatives from each political party to be seated in their government bodies?