{"id":168,"date":"2004-09-21T08:32:26","date_gmt":"2004-09-21T08:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/168"},"modified":"2004-09-21T08:32:26","modified_gmt":"2004-09-21T08:32:26","slug":"vote-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/168","title":{"rendered":"Vote Counting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been having an email discussion about the electoral college and whether it makes your vote \u201ccount for less\u201d in non-swing states. I think there&#8217;s a fallacy in the whole \u201cmy vote doesn&#8217;t count\u201d argument \u2014 it&#8217;s like saying \u201cNadar voters lost the election for Gore\u201d and ignoring the possibility that the millions of people who voted for Bush might have played some small part as well.<\/p>\n<p>To see where you stand on this issue, try this thought experiment:<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the day before the election, and 100 people are going to vote in a city council race between Smith and Jones. How much will my vote count?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A) 1\/100th of the deciding power.<\/li>\n<li>B) Not knowable until the outcome of the election is known.<\/li>\n<li>C) Depends on whether Diebold machines are used.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s the day before the same election, and a fortune teller tells me Smith will win. How much will my vote count if I vote for Smith? If I vote for Jones?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A) 1\/100th of the deciding power.<\/li>\n<li>B) Depends on whether the fortune teller can also tell me where I lost my car keys.<\/li>\n<li>C) Depends on whether the fortune teller works for Diebold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s the day after the same election, and 55 people voted for Smith and 45 for Jones. If I voted for Smith, how much did my vote count? If I voted for Jones?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A) 1\/100th of the deciding power regardless of your vote.<\/li>\n<li>B) Any of the following:\n<ul>\n<li>B-1) 0% if I voted for Jones, 1\/55th if I voted for Smith.<\/li>\n<li>B-2) 0% unless I were the 51st person to vote for Smith on    election day.<\/li>\n<li>B-3) 0% unless my vote was the 51st one to be <em>counted<\/em> for    Smith after the polls close.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>C) Depends on whether Smith knows someone who works for Diebold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Score:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>If you answered mostly A, you&#8217;re an empowered, well-balanced citizen who believes in free will.<\/p>\n<p>If you answered mostly B, in your heart you believe in determinism. Stories about time travel and drug-induced insanity upset you, but you&#8217;ll attribute it to an over-active basil ganglia.<\/p>\n<p>If you answered mostly C, you&#8217;re a well-balanced citizen who believes in free will but realizes that his vote not only doesn&#8217;t count, but isn&#8217;t even counted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been having an email discussion about the electoral college and whether it makes your vote \u201ccount for less\u201d in non-swing states. I think there&#8217;s a fallacy in the whole \u201cmy vote doesn&#8217;t count\u201d argument \u2014 it&#8217;s like saying \u201cNadar voters lost the election for Gore\u201d and ignoring the possibility that the millions of people who voted for Bush might have played some small part as well.<\/p>\n<p>To see where you stand on this issue, try this thought experiment:<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the day before the election, and 100 people are going to vote in a city council race between Smith and Jones. How much will my vote count?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A) 1\/100th of the deciding power.<\/li>\n<li>B) Not knowable until the outcome of the election is known.<\/li>\n<li>C) Depends on whether Diebold machines are used.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s the day before the same election, and a fortune teller tells me Smith will win. How much will my vote count if I vote for Smith? If I vote for Jones?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A) 1\/100th of the deciding power.<\/li>\n<li>B) Depends on whether the fortune teller can also tell me where I lost my car keys.<\/li>\n<li>C) Depends on whether the fortune teller works for Diebold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s the day after the same election, and 55 people voted for Smith and 45 for Jones. If I voted for Smith, how much did my vote count? If I voted for Jones?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A) 1\/100th of the deciding power regardless of your vote.<\/li>\n<li>B) Any of the following:\n<ul>\n<li>B-1) 0% if I voted for Jones, 1\/55th if I voted for Smith.<\/li>\n<li>B-2) 0% unless I were the 51st person to vote for Smith on    election day.<\/li>\n<li>B-3) 0% unless my vote was the 51st one to be <em>counted<\/em> for    Smith after the polls close.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>C) Depends on whether Smith knows someone who works for Diebold.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Score:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>If you answered mostly A, you&#8217;re an empowered, well-balanced citizen who believes in free will.<\/p>\n<p>If you answered mostly B, in your heart you believe in determinism. Stories about time travel and drug-induced insanity upset you, but you&#8217;ll attribute it to an over-active basil ganglia.<\/p>\n<p>If you answered mostly C, you&#8217;re a well-balanced citizen who believes in free will but realizes that his vote not only doesn&#8217;t count, but isn&#8217;t even counted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}