#MakeItReal Moment 14: Cast Away

MakeItReal Moment 14: Cast Away

In case you’re not paying attention to politics (who pays attention to politics? Everything is so calm in the government), something cool happened in Virginia yesterday. After a recount and a reconsideration and careful analysis of the ballot below, the two candidates for a Virginia House seat ended up with the exact same number of votes each: 11,608.  It seems that a filled in bubble with a line through it counts as a non-filled in bubble(we give standardized tests for JUST THIS SITUATION!). So this vote counted for Republican candidate Yancey instead of not being counted at all. Then there’s this:

So, here are your #MakeItReal Moment Questions and Suggestions:

1. What are the chances of this actually happening?

2. There were 52,753 eligible voters. What does this make you think?

3. Can you design a better system for determining the winner of a tie in an election like this?

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