As an eighth-grade math teacher, I feel compelled to offer a few corrections to the math presented in the article on Brickett Allis’ write-in campaign.
The article quotes Allis’ Facebook post, in which he lists various percentages in an attempt to show how close the vote was. Unfortunately, Allis does not seem to have a grasp on how to accurately calculate this data. He seems to be basing his numbers on the total number of registered voters in Greenfield (around 11,000, according to Wikipedia), not the actual number of people who voted in the primary (3,219). I will offer some revisions for Allis: Wedegartner received 38.4 percent (or 1,236 votes), Gilmour received 31.4 percent (or 1,011 votes), Allis received 29.7 percent (or 957 votes). Fifty-five votes (the difference between him and secnd place) is equivalent to 1.7 percent of the vote; 280 votes (the difference between him and first place) is equivalent to 8.7 percent of the vote.
I would expect that the Recorder would check the veracity of claims made before publishing them on the front page or would offer the actual data from the primary alongside. Allis purports to be a “numbers guy,” and yet this math seems to indicate we should be more skeptical of the figures he rattles off. On several occasions recently, Allis has offered his own calculations to back up his arguments, such as in the back and forth over the library, always with the air that he understands quantitative data more than the rest of us. Going forward, I would like to see Allis show his work alongside his answers so that we can check it ourselves.
Jessica Farwell
Greenfield