Sample Count

A while ago, I wrote about the GE2020 sample count. Together with Yong Sheng,[] we gave a talk about this at DataScience SG last night (Youtube link)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9-zax0mMrw). Do also check out the second talk as reinforcement learning is always an interesting subject - props to Siddarth for giving that quick summary of RL! Also, Symbolic Connection’s episode featuring me is now live! Thanks to Koo Ping Shung for organizing both of the above. ...

Election season is upon us again here in Singapore and Polling Day is this Friday. The last election in 2015 introduced the sample count. What is the sample count? From the ELD Website: From the votes cast at each polling station, a counting assistant picks up a random bundle of 100 ballot papers (in front of the candidates and counting agents present) and counts the number of votes for each candidate (or group of candidates in the case of a GRC). ...

(Note: This was originally posted on Facebook) TL;DR While the sample counts of this year’s GE saw some huge deviations, they are mostly within expectation. The two hour extension brought about some online groans from friends who didn’t want to stay up late to follow the results. To help alleviate some of this anxiety, I decided to set up a tracking sheet for the sample counts with estimated win probabilities to let people decide if the final count was worth waiting for. ...