Roger wrote:

 

However, if there is the tiniest tendency toward voting one way or the other, 
then the probability of a close result dwindles with the turnout:

 

If you are correct here, then why doesn’t it upend small sample theory?  Sample 
variance = population variance / sample size? 

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> 
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Roger Critchlow
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2020 9:33 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] high turnout and tight races?

 

You're right, assuming that either vote is equally likely:

 

julia> for n in [10000, 100000, 1000000]
    # run 1000 simulations
    close = 0
    for x in 1:1000
        # collect votes
        v = rand(Int(n))
        n1 = count(v .< 0.5)
        n2 = n-n1
        if (n1-n2)/n < 0.01
            close += 1
        end
    end
    p = close/1000
    println("pop $n has p(close) $p");
end
pop 10000 has p(close) 0.841
pop 100000 has p(close) 0.999
pop 1000000 has p(close) 1.0

 

However, if there is the tiniest tendency toward voting one way or the other, 
then the probability of a close result dwindles with the turnout:

 

bias = 0.51
for n in [10000, 100000, 1000000]
    # run 1000 simulations
    close = 0
    for x in 1:1000
        # collect votes
        v = rand(Int(n))
        n1 = count(v .< bias)
        n2 = n-n1
        if (n1-n2)/n < 0.01
            close += 1
        end
    end
    p = close/1000
    println("pop $n has p(close) $p");
end

 

 pop 10000 has p(close) 0.166
pop 100000 has p(close) 0.001
pop 1000000 has p(close) 0.0

 

-- rec --

 

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020 at 10:46 PM <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

HANG ON, Roger

 

Variance decreases with N.

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> 
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On 
Behalf Of Roger Critchlow
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 7:16 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> >
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] high turnout and tight races?

 

I would think that the more people who vote the less likely a tie or close 
outcome becomes, simply by the larger number of ways you can miss with more 
votes in play.

 

-- rec --

 

 

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020 at 8:17 PM Frank Wimberly <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

N = 3 is slightly better.  But I don't have time or incentive to do a detailed 
statistical analysis.  

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

 

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 6:14 PM Frank Wimberly <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

In 1964 Johnson beat Goldwater by 60 to 40.  The Kennedy/Nixon and Gore/Bush 
elections were extremely close.  In all three elections the turnout was between 
35 and 40 percent.

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

 

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 6:00 PM Frank Wimberly <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

I'm saying that in this election there will be high turnout and not a very 
close election.

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

 

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 5:59 PM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

So, what about the question I asked? You have no opinion on whether high 
turnout negatively or positively correlates with narrow victories?


On 10/28/20 4:52 PM, Frank Wimberly wrote:
> I predict that Biden will win by a large margin and that the outcome will be 
> clear on election night notwithstanding any outstanding uncounted votes.  
> Young people are voting in unprecedented numbers and are reportedly voting 
> against Trump.  Similarly the elderly, who favored Trump over Clinton by 10+ 
> percentage points in 2016 are favoring Biden over Trump by a similar margin, 
> according to polls.
> 
> The good thing about predictions is that they can be evaluated perfectly 
> after the events have happened.
> 
> Frank
> 
> ---
> Frank C. Wimberly
> 140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
> Santa Fe, NM 87505
> 
> 505 670-9918
> Santa Fe, NM
> 
> On Wed, Oct 28, 2020, 5:20 PM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[email protected] 
> <mailto:[email protected]>  <mailto:[email protected] 
> <mailto:[email protected]> >> wrote:
> 
>     From:
> 
>     https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2020/Pres/Maps/Oct28.html#item-7 
> <https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2020/Pres/Maps/Oct28.html#item-7>
>     "6. High turnout makes razor-thin victories, like the ones Trump notched 
> in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in 2016, much less likely."
> 
>     Is that true? I've always heard that tight races lead to higher turnout, 
> which would imply that high turnout would correlate WITH thin victories, not 
> against them.

-- 
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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