Opinion ID: 853071
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Truncation

Text: The first problem resulted from a truncation feature embedded in the program since 1980. The program would first read the registered voter list and determine the total number of registered voters in the county and in each township. The program would then determine the percentage of all Allen County registered voters who resided in each township. Before each calendar year, the court administrator determined the desired number of jurors required for all Allen County courts for the entire year. Based upon the requested size of this master pool, the program then determined the number of jurors it needed to select from each township to ensure proportional representation of that township in the master pool. The total voter list for the township was then to be divided into that number of selection groups by dividing the total number of registered voters in the township by the number of jurors needed from the township. One juror was then to be chosen from each group. This division rarely produced an integer (e.g., 21). In almost all cases, it produced a real number (e.g., 21.2439). The program then truncated this real number by eliminating everything after the decimal point and converting the real number (21.2439) into an integer (21). The program then used the integer, rather than the real number, to select groups, identifying the first 21 as group 1, then 22 through 42 as group 2, etc. By using the truncated integer, which was a fraction smaller than the real number, rather than rounding to the nearest integer, the program produced roughly 5% more groups than the requested size of the master pool. A random number was then used to select one juror from each group, producing a response in the range of 10,500 names to a request for 10,000 jurors. Thus, from the outset of the program in 1980, this truncation caused more voters than were requested to be chosen for assignment of a random number. [2]