In fact, the process has been an education in and of itself. In this commentary we address some of the lessons from the presidential election, as well as some of the more traditional education issues that were decided by voters across the country. As most of our regular readers know the Irascible Professor is a physicist as well as an educator. From the viewpoint of a physicist, the result of the election on November 7th was a tie within the accuracy and constraints of the American electoral system. Vice President Gore leads in the popular vote by slightly more than 220,000 votes out of the more than 100,000,000 that were cast.
Elections basically measure the sentiment of the electorate for the candidates.
Like any other measurement there are uncertainties and errors involved in the process. In the United States a wide variety of technologies used in voting and vote counting. The level of sophistication ranges from simple paper ballots to fairly sophisticated computer systems. Punch card ballots even if voted correctly occasionally are not read correctly by the tabulating machines and computers because the intended hole has not been punched cleanly or completely. Random errors also occur in the counting of paper ballots, even those tallied by optical scanners.