How Baseball, Poker and Fermat Teach Us The Best Way to Elect the President
Alan Natapoff
Wed Jan 18, 04-05:30pm, 32-124
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
There is a movement afoot to elect the president by simple majority vote (SMV) —without an amendment—through an (unconstitutional, Article I.10.3) compact among states. Eight states have signed it. If it seems harmless, it is not: it would destroy all individual voting power over the presidency: SMV cannot provide significant individual voting power in any realistic presidential election. We will introduce the calculation of voting power and examine its consequences for election design. We will discuss the close analogy of voting rules to those of large-statistics sports. Last, we will discuss the statistical lessons offered by the history of presidential elections and examine the simple system that can cure the ills of the Electoral College without destroying its unappreciated strengths.
Web: http://natapoff@mit.edu
Contact: Alan Natapoff, 37-219, x3-7757, natapoff@space.mit.edu
Sponsor: Political Science
Latest update: 20-Dec-2011
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