This State College teen is too young to vote but won over $10,000 for political engagement
Though not old enough to vote, 16-year-old Kyle Hynes has always been interested in government, and his passion for politics hasn’t gone unnoticed.
After winning more than $10,000 in a civic engagement competition — Draw the Lines PA — Hynes was awarded the Future Leader in Social Studies award by the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies last month, recognizing him for his Pennsylvania election map. Named the top youth mapper in the state, the State College Area School District student has won the competition twice.
“Gerrymandering has always been one of the pains in our democracy — something that completely subverts everything that democracy is about,” Hynes said in a personal statement. “Millions of Pennsylvanians go to the polls every election, and although they get to darken a circle next to a candidate’s name, it means absolutely nothing. Why this? Because they’ve been forced into safe districts by gerrymandering.”
Hynes views election map drawing as a “logistical puzzle” and said his approach to mapping uses math to solve political problems.
“When I saw that there was this competition that was allowing people to try their own hand at drawing maps, I thought that was a really cool thing, and I decided that I wanted to try it,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to win. I just thought it would be fun to draw a map.”
His most recent submission was mapped while keeping competitiveness and compaction in mind.
“If people live in a district where they are in a strong minority, their voice is quashed and simply isn’t heard,” he said, adding that “safe” districts let incumbents run for re-election with ease.
The final number Hynes came to was 14 out of 17, leaving “three regrettably safe Democratic districts,” two of which are majority-minority districts. He worked to maintain the population of each district, using 1822 as the mean, but said this meant having to decrease the compactness metric.
“Unfortunately, when drawing these maps, something has to give,” he said. “Something has to be sacrificed.”
Drawing maps and determining district distribution, Hynes said, requires balance and compromise. He described his submission as a “wholly imperfect compromise among the ideas, where most people have a true say, most live in a compact district and everyone’s vote is roughly ideal.”
“Before 2018, the map was disgraceful to me,” Hynes said. “It was a clear partisan ploy on the state GOP, and I don’t think it’s OK when either party does it.”
Although there is no way to achieve perfection when determining political districts, Hynes said it is important for officials to recognize that “normal people” can draw election maps and for leaders to distribute districts fairly.
Always wanting to discuss politics with his friends, Hynes said he thinks his peers are interested in finding solutions and are willing to engage in political debate. These “less antagonistic” attitudes, he said, give him hope for the future.
“While you do have some people ... from all generations who are going after each other and swearing that the other side is their enemy until death, I feel like among younger generations, there is more of an ‘OK we can do this (attitude).’ I do have hope that maybe going forward, we’ll see more compromise.”
With plans to attend college to study economics and international relations, Hynes said he is keeping his prize money in a savings account to help pay for his education. Hynes has since been barred from participating in the Draw the Lines PA election map contest for “winning too many times,” but said he has plans to enter the state legislature drawing competition next year.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 8:13 AM.
