Differences smaller than this margin cannot be resolved, and any contest with a measured difference within this range is a tie. To cite the excellent metaphor presented by J.A. Paulos in the New York Times, any attempt to determine whether Bush or Gore won Florida is equivalent to trying to measure a bacterium with a yardstick. I hold little practical hope that this best and fairest solution, lacking either constitutional mandate or popular understanding, can possibly prevail. But think of the gain, if only we could free ourselves from a host of false assumptions about causality, measurement, and factual accuracy. An understanding that the true will of the people, as ascertainable under accepted rules then in practice, has indeed been determined in the fairest possible way under extraordinary circumstances that must not be allowed to occur again.
Football teams grasp the justice of a coin flip when each side has an equal claim.
The head of George for George, or the eagle of America for Al. Let the fortunate man win, and the United States triumph. Stephen Jay Gould is a professor of zoology at Harvard University.