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Division of the Assembly


David A Foulkes

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I seem to recall reading it here that it would be in order to call for a Division if a very small number of members voted on the question (thus may not truly represent the will of the assembly). For example if there are 100 members present at the meeting and only 3 or 4 vote a member might call for a division hoping that more members will vote in order to more accurately represent what the assembly wants (though it would seem that the 96-97 members who abstained in effect delegated their will to whichever side won the vote).

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Page 270 states that a member may call for a Division if "he doubts that a representative number of members present have voted."

What does that mean?

Synonyms for "representative number":

1.) substantial quantity

2.) statistically-consistent-with-the-true-will-of-the-members quantity

3.) sample size quantity which won't change if a different sampling were to be taken

Extreme example:

In a room of 100 potential voters, if you were to sample one voter, that would not be a representative sample, UNLESS there was true unanimity among the 100 potential voters. Then that sampling size of one would be representative of the whole.

Thus, the number of voters must be in such a quantity that the result would not change if a second vote were to be taken immediately.

When public opinion polls are taken, the poll won't be considered valid if the sample size was not from a representative quantity ("representative number").

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Page 270 states that a member may call for a Division if "he doubts that a representative number of members present have voted." What does that mean?

In large meeting halls, it sometimes happens that the members cannot hear that a question is being put. If the lack of a representative response indicates this, then the Division of the Assembly can be demanded, or the chair can take a rising vote on his own initiative.

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