Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Elections and Blood Tests

Earlier today, I made the case for low voter turnout and argued high voter turnout is overrated, wasteful and inefficient because we would almost always get the same exact election results with a significantly lower voter turnout.  I compared elections to a blood test - in both cases you only need a small sample, and the results won’t change with a larger sample.

Here's a good quote I found today to help illustrate the point:

“Next time someone tells you they don’t believe a small sample poll can possibly tell you anything, just say to them ‘OK, then. Next time you have to have a blood test, why don’t you ask them to take the whole lot?’”

British opinion pollster Nick Moon, in Significance, March 2010

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