sethgodin.typepad.com: Insist on the coin flip
This is also the way we should settle closely contested elections. We know the error rate for counting ballots is some percentage–say it’s .01%. Whenever the margin is less than the error rate, we should flip. Not waste months and millions in court, we should insist on the flip. Anything else is a waste of time and money.
If our process of collecting ballots and counting them continues to be an error filled process, a flip of a coin in really tight elections seems like a better solution than the expense of recounting it.