The curious case of the Florida election

Many people have reason to feel uncomfortable with recent events in Florida. Even those who are pleased with the outcome may feel unhappy about the way this outcome was achieved. Doubts remain about the robustness of the procedure, and its ability to convince all stakeholders that the actual outcome matches the intended outcome.

Intention

The elected president is the one who gets the most votes in Florida.

Exercise for geeks: express this rule in OCL or Prolog. 

Action

The election procedure in Florida involves a complicated series of recounts, appeals and counter-appeals.

Exercise for geeks: express this procedure using UML.

If there is a mismatch between intention and action, there are two approaches to closing the gap. One is to fix the procedure even more tightly, introduce additional control mechanisms and perhaps feedback loops to provide additional guarantees of a satisfactory outcome. The other is to be clearer about the exact outcome. Although the officials may have some latitude about the mechanisms, there should be no room for ambiguity about the result.

In a highly politicized situation, such as the recent US presidential election, there may be little trust, and a desire to control everything. Sometimes it may seem that if you don't trust someone, it's better to tell them how to do something, rather than leave it up to them to choose how to do your bidding.. This example shows that procedural specifications can be just as fraught with difficulties as declarative specifications.

Apparently, one of the biggest problems in Florida was working out what counted as a vote. If someone intended to vote for Al Gorithm, did that count as a vote? If the ballot paper was confusing, if the paper wasn't properly punched, how should that be counted? If a district returned an unlikely result, how should that be interpreted?



Joseph Maguire draws some interesting lessons about data modelling from recent elections in Florida and Guam. 


Originally posted at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~rxv/kmoi/policyprocedure.htm#florida