There's no disagreeing with an example. Yes, if the 2 Pij are always the same, then the 2000 Presidential election was legitimate & valid. I'd taken it for granted that which 2 candidates are at the front of the pack wasn't related to whether the front 2 candidates' totals were close enough for a tie, and so I believed that the probability of i & j being frontrunners when there's a tie for 1st place would be the same as their probability of being frontrunners. But the example shows that that isn't necessarily so. And the example makes it look obvious. If 1 candidate has a durable lead over another, maybe they can be frontrunners, but they can't be in a tie. In fairness to myself, I asked for an example demonstrating this early in the discussion. I didn't look for one myself, because I was completely convinced that it was impossible. Mike Ossipoff _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
