On the morning of November 9, 1994-the d.ay after the electoral land.slide that returned Republicans to power in both branches of Congress-several key races were still in doubt. The most prominent was the Washington contest involving Democrat Tom Foley, the reigning speaker of the house. An Associated Press story showed how narrow the margin had become (124):
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Foley trailed Republican challenger George Nethercutt by just 2,174 votes, or 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent. About 14,000 absentee ballots remained uncounted, making the race too close to call.
Let p = P(absentee voter prefers Foley). How sma ll could p have been and still have given Foley a 20% chance of overcoming Nethercutt's lead and winning the election?