On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Tim May wrote:
In close elections, as in close sports games, as in the golf example, there will be many events which are later claimed to be "hinge points," or forks.
Which is pretty much caused by the count being seen as an advancing 'race' with a definite order. I've never understood what the hell is a direct broadcast all about when all the votes have already been cast.
Again, a misuse of the term "causation."
Yep. People tend to have trouble with things causal.
Second, at the time of the "approximately simultaneous" vote on Tuesday, no particular state, no particular county, and no particular precinct had any way of "knowing" that it would be a hinge site.
In even simpler terms, if there is an actual draw, every single vote is precisely as much the fork as any other. Sampo Syreeni <decoy@iki.fi>, aka decoy, student/math/Helsinki university