Eventmath/Lesson plans/Using algebra to explore ranked choice voting in Alaska

Lesson plan overview
Lesson plan overview
Title	Using algebra to explore ranked choice voting in Alaska
Assumed knowledge	It's convenient if students are already familiar with how ranked choice voting works, but briefly teaching them the method can also be part of the lesson.
Activities	Students will analyze results from a particular election in Alaska in September 2022 to see how ballot transfers in the runoff might affect the final results.
Class time	45-60 minutes
Source
	"Alaska House Special Election Results". NBC News. 2022-09-06. Archived from the original on 2022-11-16. {{cite web}}: \|archive-date= / \|archive-url= timestamp mismatch (help)
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Activities

The overall goal is for students to use basic arithmetic and algebra to investigate how the final results of an election using ranked choice (instant runoff) voting depend on the 2nd-place rankings of some voters. As part of this lesson, students will also develop some numeracy and critical-thinking skills by working with large numbers, proportions, and percentages. Moreover, students will develop some quantitative literacy skills by discussing how all of this information is presented in the news media.

Introduction: discuss the results of a specific election from September 2022 in Alaska

The source webpage from NBC News states the final results toward the top of the page:

M. Peltola: 51.5%: 91,266
S. Palin: 48.5%: 86,026

Show the students just these results, while hiding the rest of the page (where the "First-choice results" appear), and ask some questions to get discussion started.

Main task: use algebra to explore that election's results

My idea for this section is for students to use variables to represent the unknown quantities of ballot transfers in the runoff rounds to investigate what the final results of the election could be.

The Wikipedia page 2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election shows the results in more detail than the original NBC News source.

And if it's feasible, it would be interesting to ask students to create flow diagrams for different possible outcomes, like this diagram for the actual election results.

Conclusion: summarize and share findings

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solutions to problems posed by the lesson
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Assignments

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Resources

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Background

You're welcome to share links to openly-accessible content (e.g. from Khan Academy, YouTube, Wikiversity, etc.) about domain knowledge or math skills students should have. Likewise, you may wish to include contextual information for the instructor.

Some possibly helpful resources:

The Associated Press has a guide: "EXPLAINER: How ranked choice voting works in Alaska"
The *Anchorage Daily News* made a short video: "Alaska ranked choice voting, explained"

Explorations

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