Re: Scanner, write-ins, printer (was Re: Barcode -- printed ballot)

On Mon, 20 Oct 2003, Alan Dechert wrote:

> n!/(k! * (n-k)!)
>
> So you can choose three of ten 120 different ways, two of ten 15 ways, one
> of ten, 10 ways, and none of 10 one way. So that's 120 + 15 + 10 + 1 = 146
> ways the cat catcher race could be voted.
>

This should be 120 + 45 + 10 + 1 = 176.

> For the county commissioner race, each contestant could have one of 9
> different scores (8 possible rankings plus blank). So, there are
> 9*9*9*9*9*9*9*9 = 43,046,721 ways this contest could be voted (allowing the
> same rank for multiple candidates).
>

Here is the big difference between our calculations. I didn't
realize that giving the same rank to several candidates was valid.
But is it really a correct vote to, for example, only rank one of
the candidates, and then not rank her first?

/Jan
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Received on Fri Oct 31 23:17:02 2003