Can you win most of the seats without winning most of the votes?

The same 36 voters. Three district maps. Three different outcomes.

20 Blue voters — 55.6% of the vote

16 Red voters — 44.4% of the vote

Nothing changed except the district boundaries. The same voters produced a 2–2 split, a 3–1 Red result, and a 3–1 Blue result.

When can rearranging the same pieces change the result?

How can boundaries change the result?

District elections count separate groups rather than one overall electorate. Moving the boundaries changes which voters are counted together, so the same total vote can produce different numbers of seats.

See it in the real world: H015 shows three actual U.S. congressional districts drawn to their real boundaries.

See the same principle somewhere unexpected: H021 shows how winning the units that count can matter more than the overall total in the 1960 World Series.