On November 27, 2000, the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, certified that 2,912,790 people voted for George W. Bush and 2,912,253 people voted for Al Gore.

That same day, I wrote these figures on the board and asked my students how many significant digits these numbers contained. I also told them to justify their answers.

I received answers that ranged from a high of an infinite number of significant digits (counting numbers are infinitely accurate) to a low of three significant digits (thousands or tens of thousands of votes were selectively included or excluded).

To stimulate the discussion, I asked them if they thought that even a machine recount could duplicate these figures. Perhaps ballots with partially punched out holes (with dangling chads) would lose their chads during a recount. Perhaps a clinging chad falling from one ballot would somehow interfere with the counting of another ballot.

I think the discussion gave more insight into the election results and to the significant digits in counting numbers.