Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by theoh 3490 days ago
The idea that an electoral poll incorporates a random error (and maybe a systematic one too) is alien to the discussion about recounts etc.
1 comments

Yes, this was one of my questions. What is the accuracy and error margin of the voting system itself (and each state seems to have different methods so its not even uniform). Of roughly 126 million votes cast, 1% accuracy would be 1.26 million votes which would be of the same order of magnitude of Clinton's "win" of the popular vote. I have no idea if 1% accuracy is close or wildly too high or too low but we can't have a meaningful discussion without it.

Correction: Actual total was 126M votes for the presidential election not 160M votes as I stated. But the question remains.

Don't hold your breath.

Consider the case, in the technology of proportional representation, of the Hagenbach-Bischoff quota: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagenbach-Bischoff_quota

It's (it seems to me) obviously arithmetically unfit for purpose compared to the Droop quota. In some cases more candidates can meet the quota than seats are available. Yet it remains in use/part of the credible discussion.