Title: AMS :: Feature Column from the AMS
Headings: The Process of Electing a President
The Process of Electing a President
Posted April 2008.
The Electoral College
Mathematical insights into elections and voting
Ballots
Decision methods
Axiomatic approaches to fairness
Manipulation of voting systems
Who studies fairness, voting and elections?
References:

Content: Here are the results of three Presidential elections, showing only the results for major parties and other candidates getting a significant number of votes. 2000
George W. Bush
50,456,062
Albert Gore, Jr.
50,996,582
Ralph Nader
2,858,843
1992
William J. Clinton
44,909,326
George Bush
39,103,882
H. Ross Perot
19,742,240
1968
Richard M. Nixon
31,785,148
Hubert H. Humphrey
31,274,503
George Wallace
9,906,473
One interesting question is whether or not these numbers are as precise as they appear when reported because most of us, if asked to count many seemingly well-determined numbers, would not get the exact right answer. ( Usually this would be because to carry out any large count takes sufficiently long that our attention flags and we would probably make some error.) The issue of accuracy in vote counts was brought to the fore by the now famous "hanging chads" issues involved in counting votes in Florida for the 2000 presidential election. If you look at different information sources, you will find differing totals for the number of votes that Bush and Gore got in the 2000 election. Whereas many people think in terms of tabulating paper ballots because often day-to-day votes are done with these, the issue of how to vote online, or using electronic/mechanical voting machines, raises many questions about the accuracy of vote counts. Mathematicians and computer scientists are looking into issues related to the security of voting and the accuracy of vote counts. In particular, suppose we have partial results from an election and the accuracy of vote for some specific districts of known size is available, can we determine if the outcome of the election might be affected by the results of these disputed votes? Noteworthy here is the fact that in 2000 the candidate who had the largest popular vote did not become president. Since ballots for president only allow a voter to vote for one candidate, it is not easy to know the consequences of having the election between only the two top vote-getters instead of the many candidates who typically appear on a presidential ballot.