Eric Bohlman wrote:
>
> You might also want to touch on operationalism (W. Edwards Deming's
> writings would be good introductions). The Florida election would be a
> good example to use: to an operationalist, it's completely meaningless to
> talk about the True Vote without reference to how the vote is counted, and
> it would be nonsense to compare counting methods based on how close they
> get to the "true" totals.
*Would* that be a good example (unless one were trying to attack
operationalism?) An election seems to me like an excellent example of a
situation in which there *is* a reality in there somewhere even if you
cannot get to it - the intention of the voter. The true total is what
you would get if every legally eligible voter was able to vote and
permitted to double-check the counting of their own vote. A good
counting system is one that gives a result close to this. If
operationalism says this is nonsense, then operationalism is an ass.
A faireer application of operationalism might be the system up to the
point where the vote is cast; there is a very real question about what
the "true" popular will is when some people choose not to vote.
Obviously, penalizing nonvoters (as I believe Australia still does) or
offering rides to the polling station changes things one way; hassling
voters, having few polling stations, or having byzantine requirements
for potentially eligible voters to be permitted to vote changes things
in the other way. (While the Florida decision to permit the Republicans
to correct technically invalid applications for overseas ballots was
illegal, one can see the point of including voters - what was truly
reprehensible was that the Democrats were not permitted to make similar
corrections.) However, it is probably true that there is no
"platinum-iridium standard" for how to handle the potential voter who
does not care enough to vote.
-Robert Dawson
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