Re: A database of electoral results?

"Paul" <paul_at_not.a.chance.ie> wrote in message news:MPG.1a159c1c839aff979897d9_at_news1.eircom.net...
>
> rhann_at_globalnet.co.uk says...
>
> > > I'm disappointed that nobody has any input on this - I would have
> > > thought that it would be interesting from a database practitioner's
> > > point of view to expand on this topic - Oh well, I'm just going to
have
> > > to invent my own models!
>
>
> > You would have to do much of that work anyway,
>
>
> Sure, of course - I wasn't suggesting that I wouldn't have to do any
> work myself.
>
>
> > because how else could you
> > judge that you were selecting the correct model from among those being
> > offered?
>
>
> As I say, I wasn't expecting a knight with a shining Oracle box to drop
> an answer into my sweaty little paw.
>
> What has disappointed me is that I got no feedback whatsoever on the
> topic - somebody somewhere must have done work on this topic, and I
> thought that I could look at what was done before and build on it (à la
> Newton - shoulders of giants &c.).
>
>
> I would have thought that it was a suitable and interesting topic for
> this ng.
>
>
> Obviously the convoluted (but extremely democratic - i.e. what the
> people vote for, the people get, unlike in some countries that I could
> name - ahem... Mr Bush are you listening?) form of Irish elections will
> require significant work (in the NoI for example, one can have fractions
> of a vote - i.e. no integers), a typical ballot has about 10 - 12 counts
> as votes are transferred from candidate to candidate and candidates are
> eliminated.

With all due respect, the convoluted process you described for Irish elections is not entirely unlike the process that gave Hitler absolute power in Germany on the basis of a small minority of votes.

The purpose of an election in a representative democracy is to choose an undisputed government accountable to the electors. Ambiguity does not work. (Think Cromwell or two Popes.)

The US presidential election process intentionally uses a formula not based on proportion of votes. The United States of America comprises 50 sovereign countries that have relinquished some measure of sovereignty in exchange for mutual defense and unfettered trade. The presidential election process explicitly protects the sovereign rights of the sparsely populated countries by increasing the weight of their vote slightly above the proportion of their population. Otherwise, four states would determine all policy in America usurping the voice of the remaining 46 states.

Given that the last election was a draw by all measures (the difference in votes nationally was well within the margin of error), the fact that the process led to an undisputed President without bloodshed demonstrates the clear superiority of the US election process compared to the rest of the world. The fact that the elected President did not receive a surplus of votes demonstrates that the formula works to protect the sovereignty of the lesser states.

I live in Canada under a system of governance based on the British Parliamentary system. This system has handed absolute power to left wing socialists for the last decade on the basis of a minority of the votes, and specifically to the hands of a despicable opportunist--a truly evil man. God only knows what evil he is going to do in Africa, but I can only say good riddance at last! That cesspool of violence and tribalism is an appropriate place for him.

Your naive, simplistic and knee-jerk condemnation of the US Presidential election bespeaks a level of ignorance and intellectual sloth entirely in keeping with your request for someone else to do your job for you. While I know nothing of your political beliefs, I observe that such a knee-jerk condemnation is typical of marxists who are either too stupid or too stubborn to admit to themselves that their social engineering policies are not only counter-productive but evil.

I would find doing the tedious parts of your job tedious as I imagine everyone else would. If you were to describe some update anomaly caused by the business requirements and not prevented by 5NF, I would find that very interesting. Doing your grunt work for you because you are too lazy to do it yourself would bore me. Received on Fri Nov 07 2003 - 15:58:56 CET