Welcome
VoteValue exists because most American voters don't actually know how much their vote weighs.
That's not a moral failing. It's a structural one. The shape of a district, the partisan lean of recent elections, the turnout history of the precincts inside it, and how much representation per voter that district actually carries — all of these things determine whether a single ballot moves anything. None of them are visible from the inside of a voting booth.
This blog is where we'll write down what we're learning.
What you can expect here
- Methodology deep-dives. What the VVI components actually measure, where the data comes from, what the caveats are, and where the model is wrong.
- Field notes. What happens when you show a redistricting tool to a state senator. What questions a community organizer asks. What surprised us in a demo.
- Civic math, plainly explained. Polsby-Popper, Reock, efficiency gap, partisan symmetry. These are not as complicated as their names suggest. They're worth knowing.
- Updates. Every time we add data for a new state, ship a new feature, or change how the VVI is calculated, you'll find the changelog here.
What you won't find here
We won't endorse candidates. We won't recommend how to vote. We won't tell you whether a district should exist in its current shape — only what its current shape is, and what the data says about its competitiveness.
VoteValue is nonpartisan by design, not by performance. The goal is to give every voter — left, right, or neither — the same accurate picture of the system they're voting inside.
How to follow along
If you have ideas for posts you'd like to see, or you want to write one yourself, reach out at votevalueteam@gmail.com.
More soon.