--- title: Olympiad: fair votes, close counts and who decides ★★★ — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Olympiad: fair votes, close counts and who decides ★★★», a lesson of the politics course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: This olympiad lesson turns the course into puzzles: count the votes, check the rule, follow the chain of who decid --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/) / Olympiad: fair votes, close counts and… # Olympiad: fair votes, close counts and who decides ★★★ Lesson 41 of the politics course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/0/) — This olympiad lesson turns the course into puzzles: count the votes, check the rule, follow the chain of who decides, and watch for one word in the question that changes everything. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/1/) — "Most votes" and "more than half" are not the same: with 30 voters, 12 votes can win a race of three, yet 18 people chose someone else, and more than half would mean at least 16. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/2/) — The rule can change the winner: count once, or knock out the last one and pass their papers to each voter's next choice, like numbering boxes in Australia, or win group by group like the US states, and the same papers can crown a different winner. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/3/) — Who-decides puzzles are chains: a bill needs both parts of Parliament or Congress and then the King's assent or the president's signature, while a broken swing in the park goes to the council, not the Prime Minister. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/4/) — People exaggerate and play things down about votes too: "literally everyone voted for me" may mean 40 kids out of 200, and "I lost by a teeny bit" may mean 3 votes to 27, so always count the real numbers. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/5/) — Winning with the most votes is not the same as winning more than half: more than half of 30 is at least 16, and more than half of 25 is at least 13. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/6/) — In Australia voters number the candidates in order; if nobody has more than half, the last candidate is knocked out and those papers go to each voter's next choice, again and again until someone has more than half. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/7/) — When votes are won group by group, as in the US Electoral College, a candidate can win the most groups with fewer votes in total; this has happened in some US presidential elections, and people disagree whether it is fair. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/8/) — While a count is going on, a candidate is only sure to win when the other cannot catch up even if every vote still to count goes to them. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/9/) — A UK bill that starts in the House of Commons must pass the Commons and the House of Lords and then get Royal Assent from the King; a US bill must pass the House and the Senate and then be signed by the president. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/10/) — If a US president vetoes a bill, Congress can still make it law if two out of every three members in both the House and the Senate vote for it again. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/11/) — The elected Commons usually gets its way over the Lords in the end, and by custom the King always gives Royal Assent; no monarch has refused for over 300 years. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/12/) — Local councils look after things like parks, bins, libraries and small roads; the national government decides big national things like the army. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/14/) — A poll's margin of error is its wobble: if one party is 2 points ahead and the wobble is 3, the race is too close to call. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/15/) — In a show of hands people can see each other's votes, so some vote to please friends; a secret ballot lets everyone vote as they really think. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/16/) — Mayors, governors and premiers are chosen in elections or by elected bodies, but the King is not elected; he stays neutral and does not vote. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/41-olympiad-fair-votes-close-counts-and-who-decides/17/) — Words in this lesson: "wicked" in New England means very; "mardy" in the North and Midlands of England means grumpy; "heaps" in Australia means very or lots; "fixin' to" in the US South means about to; "delulu" means hoping for something that won't happen. - ← previous: [Putting it together: explain each side, check the claim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/40-putting-it-together/) - next →: [Olympiad: check the claim and spot the trick ★★★](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/42-olympiad-check-the-claim-and-spot-the-trick/) - ↑ back to [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/)