Democracy With The Flip of a Coin
The stupid things that happen when there’s a tie
“What’s the most you’ve ever lost on a coin toss?” — Anton Chigurh, No Country for Old Men It ’ s a common impression among those who preach majority rule that every vote counts. It was this give voice, Every Vote Counts, that was bounced around the internet fair a few days ago when the democratic campaigner for Virginia ’ s 94th House of Delegates induct, Shelley Simonds, won her election by precisely one vote. This wasn ’ triiodothyronine good a regular house election, either. It was the decide seat that would end the Republican majority that had lasted for about 20 years. This was a capital story, but it didn ’ metric ton last besides long. The next day, when the judges were tasked with certifying the election results, they decided that one of the democratic ballots was invalid. abruptly, the democratic dream turned into a democratic nightmare : a tie. In a moment, it went from every vote counting to not a single right to vote consider. The exalted experiment of self-governance now came down to pulling names out of a bowl.
Reading: Democracy With The Flip of a Coin
No, in truth.
As it would turn out, our democratic systems don ’ t in truth understand how to deal with a tie. fortunately, this doesn ’ thymine happen all that much. Most elections involve at least several thousand people, so the chances that a legitimate necktie happens is statistically about zero. however, it happens more than often enough for it to be highly authoritative in certain scenarios, most notably the one mentioned above.
naturally, this international relations and security network ’ t the first clock that this has happened. Every year there always seem to be a few elections that come town to a hat entire of names or a flip of a coin. A city council seat in Bolton, Connecticut went Republican merely a month ago because of a coin toss. In the Iowa democratic Caucus during the 2016 election, there were several delegates that went to Hillary Clinton based off of a series of coin tosses ( Coincidentally, Clinton won all six coin tosses ). Some areas get a piece more creative with it. In Minnesota, a county commissioner seat was decided by drawing colored blocks out of a fabric bag. In New Mexico, an election can be decided by a game of cards. In Florida, one city council race used a mint pass to decide between two bags wax of count pink niff balls, and whoever chose the highest-numbered ball won the seat. This is all merely a long-winded way of saying that electoral ties are basically crapshoots, and can be decided in a variety show of unlike, very stupid ways. There are other ways to do this. These ties are so rare that it should not be excessively much trouble to hold a simple special election to figure out who should hold that seat. While it may end up with a lower turnout, at least it would reflect the actual choice of the people. taxonomic changes like runoff vote would prevent these types of ties in district where there are more than two candidates. Basically, when something a crucial as the Virginia House of Delegates is at stake, the solution should be a bit more resolute than pulling a diagnose out of a bowl .
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