LINEAR ALGEBRA AND LEGISLATIVE VOTING

BEHAVIOR : RICE'S INDICES"

THOMAS

w.

CASSTEVENS

Oakland University
PREFACE

T
L

egislative voting behavior has been extensively researched by

behavioral scientists using a variety of quantitative indices and
mathematical techniques. Some of these indices and techniques
have been used for decades, but their essentially mathematical
properties have been subjects of debate or have not been thoroughly explored. Stuart Rice's index of cohesion and index of likeness, for example, have been used continuously since the 1920s but
have rarely been investigated from a mathematical point of view.'
D espite continuous use since the 1920s, Rice's indices suffer
from a well-known flaw, viz., legislators who neither vote aye nor
vote nay are omitted. This shortcoming hardly needs elaboration,
but two aspects deserve notice. ( i) Empirically, the number of
omitted legislators may be rather large in relation to the total size of
the party or other subset of legislators being studied. An extreme
example is furnished by the 1910 British House of Commons. D uring the session of July 18, on division number 106, the vote was 49
ayes, 1 nay, and approximately 620 MPs did not vote. (There were
670 seats in the House of Commons, but a few were vacant as a result of deaths, resignations, etc.) The low turnout may be amusingly explained by the fact that the division occurred at 3 A.M. in
the morning of July 19. During the 1910 Parliament, however,
0

With the exception of Figures 1 and 2 and related text, tl1is paper was
written while I was on leave from Oakland University as a NSF Science
Faculty Fellow and a Visiting Fellow, Mathematics Department, Dartmouth
College. M. K. Bennett, D. Roeder, M. Vitale, and the students in Mathematics 36 (Mathematical Models in the Social Sciences) were helpful in
diverse ways, but the paper would not have been written without K. Bogart's sustained encouragement and friendly criticism.

Rice's seminal paper is reprinted in John C. Wahlke and Heinz Eulau,

eds., Legislative Behavior (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959), 372377. For a survey of the subsequent literature, see Lee F. Anderson,
Meredith W. Watts, Jr., and Allen R. Wilcox, Legislative Roll-Call Analysis
(Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1966), ch. 3.
1

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770

(VoL. 32

there were 159 recorded divisions, and in 80 of those divisions,

fewer than 335 MPs voted. ( ii) Conceptually, few votes seem to
fit the procrustean bed of a nvo-choice model. If a fixed number
of votes (either aye or nay) is required for a legislative decision,
perhaps the dichotomy benveen aye and non-aye or between nay
and non-nay is plausible. For example, at any given time, a fixed
number of aye votes is required for the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a constitutional amendment, and on occasion, a fixed
number of objections is required for the British House of Commons
to void an executive order. However, although the actual frequency has never been investigated (so far as I know), this type
of vote appears to occur relatively infrequently.
This article embeds Rice's indices in a linear algebra structure,
generalizes the indices so as to overcome the above shortcoming,
and, finally, evaluates the indices from an algebraic point of view.
Subsequent papers will apply linear algebra to other indices and
techniques used to study legislative voting behavior. 2
RICE's DEFINITIONS

Let S be the non-empty set of legislators who vote either aye or

nay on a given motion. Let X and Y be non-empty subsets of S.
The index of cohesion, which measures the "cohesiveness" of a
political party or other subset of legislators on a given vote, provides a quantitative answer for such queries as: How cohesive is the
farm bloc in the U.S. Congress?
Definition 1. (Rice) The index of cohesion for X is the absolute difference between the proportion of X's who vote aye and
the proportion of X's who vote nay.

The index of cohesion obviously ranges from 0 to 1. The maximum

( 1) occurs if and only if the subset of legislators is either unanimously voting aye or unanimously voting nay. The minimum (0)
occurs if and only if the subset of legislators is evenly divided between the ayes and nays.
The index of likeness, which measures the degree of "likeness"
2 For

an outstanding introduction to linear algebra for political scientists,

see Hugh G. Campbell, Matrices With Applicatiot~.~ (New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1968).

1970]

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771

between two political parties or a brace of other subsets of legislators on a given vote, furnishes a quantitative answer for such questions as: How much alike are the Republicans and Southern Democrats in the U.S. Congress?

Definition 2. (Rice) The index af likeness between X and Y

is the complement of the index of difference, viz., 1-index of
difference. The index of difference between X and Y is the
absolute difference between the proportion of X's who vote aye
and the proportion of Y's who vote aye.
For computational ease, in applications, the index of likeness is
frequently replaced by the index of difference. When convenient,
that practice is followed in this paper. The index of difference obviously ranges from 0 to I. The maximum (I) occurs if and only if
the subsets of legislators are each unanimous but in different directions. The minimum ( 0) occurs if and only if the two subsets are
identically (but not necessarily evenly) distributed between the
ayes and nays.
For X and Y, the index of difference is related to the indices of
cohesion as follows:

Theorem 1. (Porterfield) The index of difference equals either

l/2 the sum of the indices of cohesion or l/2 the absolute difference between the indices of cohesion. 3
These definitions are nicely illustrated by a 1918 British example of some historical importance. On April 9, Prime Minister
David Lloyd George informed the House of Commons that "the
Army in France was considerably stronger on January lst, 1918,
than on January lst, 1917." On May 7, in a letter to the newspapers, General Frederick Maurice stated, 'That is not correct." On
May 9, the Leader of the Liberal Party (H. H. Asquith) moved
that a Select Committee of the House of Commons be appointed
to investigate Maurice's allegations. Asquith's motion was defeated
3For a detailed proof and extensions, see Thomas Casstevens and Owen
Porterfield, "The Index of Likeness as a Mathematical Function of the Indices
of Cohesion for Roll Call Voting," Behavioral Science, 13 (May 1968 ),
234-237.

For source material, see The Liberal ll.fagazine, 1918 (London: The
Liberal Publication Departn1ent, 1919).

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THE JouRNAL OF PoLrrrcs

by a vote of 108 ayes, 295 nays. (Approximately 2ff7 MPs did not
vote. There were ff70 seats in the House of Commons, but a few
seats were vacant as a result of deaths, resignations, etc.) The partisan breakdown of the ayes and nays was as follows:
Liberal= ( 98 ayes, 71 nays),
Labour= ( 9 ayes, 15 nays),
Conservative= ( 1 aye, 206 nays), and
others= ( 0 ayes, 3 nays).
For the three political parties, routine calculations yield the following values to three decimal places, for the indices of cohesion,
difference, and likeness:
TABLE 1
PARTISAN INDICES FOR THE MAURICE VOTE

Index of cohesion
Liberal
= 0.160
Labour
= 0.250
Conservative = 0.990

Index of difference
Lib-Lab
Lib-Con
Lab-Con

=0.205
=0.575
= 0.370

Index of likeness
Lib-Lab
Lib-Con
Lab-Con

=0.795
=0.425
=0.630

VECIOR DEFINITIONS

The following properties of real vectors (i.e., vectors whose components are real-that is, ordinary decimal-numbers) are summarized for reference purposes.
Let X= ( x,xz, ... , x.) and Y= ( y,y2 , , y.) be n-dimensional
vectors, where n is a fixed integer > 2. Let c be a real number.
The sum of two n-dimensional vectors X and Y is an n-dimensional
vector, denoted by X+ Y, where
X + Y=(x,+ y.,x2+y2, . .. ,x.+y.).
The product of a real number c and an n-dimensional vector X is an
n-dimensional vector, denoted by eX, where
eX= ( cx,,cx", . .. , ex.).
Subtraction is defined in terms of addition and multiplication. The

1970]

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I NDICES

773

difference between two n-dimensional vectors X and Y is an ndimensional vector, denoted by X-Y, where
X- Y =X+ ( -1 )Y = (X,- y, Xz - y~, ... , Xn- y.).
The inner product of two n-dimensional vectors X and Y is a real
number, denoted by XoY, where
X 0 Y=x,y 1 + x"y" + ... + x.y.
The norm of an n-dimensional vector X is the positive square root,
denoted by I X I I of the inner product of X with itself.

A probability vector is a real vector with non-negative components whose sum is 1.

Geometrically, a vector is a point or an arrow in space.
For the Euclidean space of one, two, or three dimensions, the
notion of the distance between two points is quite intuitive. This
notion is generalized and defined as follows:

Definition 3. Let X and Y be n-dimensional vectors.

distance between X and Y is I I X- Y I ], where
II X -Y I J = v' (x 1 -y 1 )

The

+ (x1 -y2 ) 2 + ... + (x. - y.) 2

If Y is the origin, represented by the n-dimensional zero vector

(O,O, ... , O), then JJ X-Y J f = JfX f ]. Thus,thenormofthe
vector X is the distance between the point ( x,, x1 , . , x.) and the
origin; this distance is the length of the vector, when the vector is
. represented as a n arrow from the origin to the point.
For the Euclidean space of two or three dimensions, if two
arrows are drawn between the origin and two points, then the idea
of the angle between the arrows is quite intuitive. This idea is
generalized and indirectly defined as follows:
Definition 4. Let X and Y be n-dimensional non-zero vectors.
The cosine of the angle between X andY, denoted by cos (X,Y),
.

XoY

JS------1 !XJ J JJ Yif

The cosine of an angle obviously ranges from -1 to 1. In statistics,

cos( X,Y) is known as the product-moment correlation coefficie nt.5
sFor a geometric interpretation of correlation, see Harry H. Harrnan,
Modem Factor Analysis (2nd ed.; Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1967), 60-62.

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THE JoURNAL oF PoLmcs

The application of vector notation to legislative voting behavior

is straightforward. Several instructive examples are readily constructed from the previously cited data about the voting on Asquith's
and
motion in the 1918 British House of Commons. Let the aves
'
nays constitute the universe of discourse, and let X be a two-dimensional vector whose components are x, =ayes, x2 =nays. The Liberal
vote is conveniently written as the vector L = ( 98, 71) or, alter-

~t ).
1
19

natively, as the probability vector L' = ( ~ ,

The lengths

of those vectors are I I L I 1= 121.017 and I I L' l 1=0.716. The

Conservative vote is represented by the vector C=(1, 206) or, alternatively, by the probability vector C' = (

2~7

;J,~

).

The

lengths of those vectors are I I C I I= 206.002 and I I C' I I=0.995.

The distance between L and C is J J L- C I I= 166.235, but the
distance between L' and C' is 1 ! L' - C' I I= 0.813. The cosine of
LC
the angle between L and C is --:-I-:-I__
L_,..I. ;I:........:;::..
I .,.....C:::-:l ..,..- = 0.591, and
1

between L' and C' is I

L'
I L' I I

C'
I I

C'TI 0.591.

For obvious reasons, in this paper, this type of applied vector

is called a voting vector. A voting vector may have more than two
dimensions. For example, if all the MPs constitute the universe of
discourse, then the total vote on Asquith's motion is represented by
a three-dime nsional vector T = ( t 1 =ayes, t, =nays, t3 =others) and,
approximately, T= (108, 295, 267). Any finite number of dimensions is readily represented in vector notation.
N-oiMENSIONAL GENERALIZATIONs OF RicE's DEFINITIONS

Since Rice's indices are defined in terms of ayes, nays, and proportions, two-dimensional probability vectors are their algebraic
model. The broad strategy for generalizing the indices is to con-

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INDICES

775

struct a suitable model from n-dimensional probability vectors. If

any number of component s is mathemati cally possible in a voting
vector, then no relevant legislator need be omitted for mathemati cal
reasons, since the voting vectors can have a residual "others" category as their n'h component.
Problem. Generalize the index of cohesion, subject to the following four constraints. ( i ) The generalized (or general ) index
should not omit legislators simply because they neither voted aye

nor voted nay. (ii ) For a two-choice u niverse of ayes and nays, the
generalized index should be equivalent to the index of cohesion.
(iii) The generalized index should range between 0 and 1. ( iv)
The general index's maximum ( 1) should occur if and only if unanimity exists, and its minimum ( 0 ) should occur if and only if the
subset of legislators is evenly distributed . These four constraints
are not wholly arbitrary: ( i) and ( ii ) ensure that the generalized
index is more general than Rice's index, and (ii)-(iv) ensure that
the general index is a generalizat ion of Rice's rather than Whosit's
index.
Definition 5. Let X =( x., x", ... , x.) be an n-dimensional probability voting vector and let Y = ( 1/n, 1/n, . .. , 1/n) be an ndimensiona l vector, where n > 2. The general index of cohesion
n

for

X is~ I iX- Y! I

Theorem 2. The general index of cohesion has the four desired

properties.
Proof. ( i) The first constraint is obviously satisfied since a
probability voting vector can have more than the two components x, = ayes, x" = nays.

{ii) Let the general index be denoted by GC. For n = 2, we

find that GC =( 2 )'h ([x,- 1!2]' + [x" - 1h]')'h, where the fractional exponent denotes the positive square root. We note that
x, and x" are equidistan t from lh ( their mean ), so ( x, - 1h) =
{x2 -lh)' and GC = ( 2)'1.. (2[x, - %]")Y...
Thus GC = (2)'1.: {2)'1.: ([x, - lh]" )'h = 2 1x, -lh 1, where the
single pair of parallel bars denotes the absolute value.
But 2 1x, - 1h I is simply the value of the index of cohesion, so
the second constraint is satisfied.

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THE JouRNAL oF PoLITICS

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(iii) The general index

GC -=(

n )Y.: ([x,- 1/n]''

n- 1

because the first radical

+ ... + [x.-1/n]");!.->O

> 0 and the second radical > 0.

Expanding the second radical, we get

( [x,)2- 2x,/n + 1/n2

+ ... + [x.F- 2x.fn + 1/n2 ) 'h,

and collecting like terms, we obtain

(~[x,F

~[-2x,/n]

~1/n 2 ) ~~.

where the index of summation i runs from 1 to n.

~( -2x,/n) = ( -2/n )~x, =

-2/n, and l:1/n 2

n/n 2

Since

1/n, the

second radical becomes

2
.
..:..n~~.::..[
x._!.;,
]:....
~..:..1_ )'~ = ( n:S[~ ,F -1
Thus GC=(
)>6 (n-1
n
n-1

But n~(x,) 2
as desired.

:::; n since 0 < :S(x,)2 < 1, so GC < ( ~=~ )%= 1,

( iv) The general index is defined for probability vectors, i.e.,

vectors with non-negative components whose sum is 1.

...
h
C
n~[x,F -1
)%. We
From the proo f o f (m), we ave G = (
n- 1
note that 0 < x, < 1 and that l:x, = 1, so ~(x,) 2 is maximal
(i.e., equals 1) if and only if some component x, = 1.
Thus GC = (-0

1 )%= 1 if and onlv if unanimitv prevails.

'
'

n -1

Since :S(x,)2 is minimal (i.e., equals n/n 2 = 1/n) if and only if

1970]

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777

RicE's INDICES

1/n for i

1, 2, . . . , n, GC

-i )

n-

if the legislators are evenly distributed.

proof.

'h

0 if and only

This completes the

Problem. Generalize the index of difference, subject to the

following four constraints. ( i) The generalized (or general) index should not omit legislators simply because they neither voted
aye nor voted nay. ( ii) For a two-choice universe of ayes and nays,
the generalized index should be equivalent to the index of difference. (iii) The generalized index should range between 0 and 1.
( iv) The general index's maximum ( 1) should occur if and only if
the two subsets of legislators are each unanimous but in different
directions, and its minimum ( 0) should occur if and only if the
subsets of legislators are identically (but not necessarily evenly)
distributed. These four constraints are not entirely arbitrary: ( i)
and ( ii) require that the generalized index be more general than
Rice's index, and (ii)-(iv) require that the general index be a generalization of Rice's rather than Whatshisname's index.
Definition 6. Let X = ( x,, x2, , x.) and
Y = ( y, y~, ... , y.) ben-dimensional probability voting vectors.
The general index of difference between X and Y is v 1h I j X -

Y I l
Theorem 3. The general index of difference has the four desired properties.
Proof. ( i) The first constraint is obviously satisfied since nvo
probability voting vectors, although haviug the same number of
dimensions, can have more than the components x, = ayes, x" =
nays, and y 1 = ayes, y 2 = nays.
( ii) Let the general index be denoted by CD. For n = 2,
CD = ( lh) 'h ( [x, - y,)2 + [x 2 - Y2JZ) '!.:, We note that
x, + x" = y, + Yz = 1, so x, -y1 = y"-x2 and (x1-Y1P..:.
(y2 -x") 2 Since (y2-x2F = (x2-Y2)2, we see that
CD= (lh)'h (2[x,- y,J2 )'h = (lh)'h (2)'h ( [x,- y~P) 'h.
Thus CD

= (

[x, - y,]') 'h

J x ~.- y 1 J, as desired.

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THE JouRNAL OF Pouncs

[VoL. 32

(iii) The general index GD =- (if2) 'h ([x1 - y,p + ... +

[x"- y~P) 'h ? 0 because the first radical > 0 and the second
radical ? 0. We recall that X and Y are probability vectors;
each has non-negative components whose sum is 1. Thus, within the second radical, ~(x,-yY is maximal (i.e., equals 2) if
and only if I x, - y, I =- 1 and I x. - y. I = 1, for some j f k.
The desired result follows immediately since CD = ( 1f.z) 'h ( 2)
'h = 1 is maximal. ( iv) Since ( lh) 'h is always positive, we see
that CD = 0 if and only if ( x,- y,) = 0, for i = 1, 2,... , n.
From the proof of (iii), we know that GD = 1 if and only if
I x, - y 1 I = 1 and Ix,- y.I = 1, for some j f k. Thus, for two
subsets of legislators, GD is minimal ( 0) if and only if the
subsets are identically distributed, and GD is maximal ( 1) if
and only if the subsets are each unanimous but in different
directions. (Geometrically, a component of a vector represents
a direction). This completes the proof.

Problem. The problem of generalizing the index of likeness,

subject to four appropriate constraints, is implicitly solved by the
immediately preceding theorem and definition. Since the adequacy
of the following definition is obvious, a proof is omitted.
Definition 7. The general index of likeness between X and Y
is the complement of the general index of difference between
X and Y, namely, 1 -general index of difference.
AN APPRAISAL

The general indices explicitly and Rice's indices implicitly are

defined in terms of subsets of the set of voting vectors and the set
of vector concepts. The indices may be illuminated by briefly
considering other subsets of those sets.
The general indices are defined in terms of probability voting
vectors, but these are not the only type of voting vectors. Some
voting vectors have non-negative integers (viz., the number o~ ayes,
etc.) as components; for convenience, these are dubbed data voting
vecto1s. These two types of voting vectors are obviously not equivalent. Loosely speaking, every data voting vector allows the
construction of a single probability voting vector, but the converse
is true only for special cases, e.g., if the components are written as

1970]

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779

non-reduce d fractions. Some formalized comparativ e properties

follow: Let X= (x,, ... , x.) andY= (y,, ... , y.) be data voting
vectors. Let X' = (x; , . . . ,
and Y' = (y~ , . . . , y~ ) be the
probability voting vectors <-'O nstructed from X and Y, respectively.

x: )

( i ) The distance between X and Y does not usually equal the

distance between X' and Y' because 0 < I I X- Y I I whereas
o < 1 1X' - Y' 1 1 < v2 .
( ii ) Since the components of X, Y, X', and Y' are non-negati ve
real numbers, the cosines between X and Y and between X' and
Y' are always non-negative because 0 < cos(X,Y) < 1 and
0 < cos(X',Y' ) < 1.
( iii ) The cosines between X and Y and between X' and Y'
are always equal because X' o Y' and I I X' I I I IY' I I contain
a common factor which ( upon cancelling ) reduces
X'

I I X' I I

Y'
r

XY

I Y' I I to I I X I I I I y I I

These three properties and both types of voting vectors are illustrated above with the 1918 British example.
The general indices are defined in terms of the norm but this is
not the only function of two vectors. The cosine function is also
noteworthy for students of legislative voting behavior. These two
types of functions are quite distinct. F rom a geometrica l point of
view, this is obvious since if X and Y are two non-zero vectors, represented as arrows from the origin to points ( x,, ..., x.) and ( y.,
..., y.) , the distance between the points tells nothing about the
angle between the arrows. Thus, for a complete geometric characterization of voting vectors, norm-style indices must be supplemented by cosines, and conversely. A corollary is the following:

Theorem 4. For two probability voting vectors, if at least one is

non-unanimous, then the general index and Rice's index of likeness cannot b e derived from the cosine, and the converse is also

true.
Geometric al representat ions are somewhat difficult to draw for
three dimensions and impossible to graph for higher dimensions. A
two-dimensional illustration is given in Figure 1. On November 21,

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FIGURE

UNITED STATES SENATE VOTE ON }UDCE HAYNSWORTH, BY PARTY

Nay
d (33.3,66.7)

I
I

00

I
I

45
D (19,38)

I
I

r ( 00.5,

I
I
I

I
I

(26,17)

15

39.5)

I
I

---4~------~------~~------~-------4----------AYc
15
3o
45

oo

Index of Difference
In Pcr~"HDtaJ,!e

Notation

1969, the United States Senate defeated President Nixon's nomination of Judge Clement Haynsworth, for the Supreme Court, by a
vote of 45 ayes to 55 nays. Every Senator voted; so, in this case,
Rice's indices are equivalent to the general indices. The partisan
breakdown of the vote was as follows: Republicans ( 26 aye, 17
nay) or, alternatively, (60.5% aye, 39.5% nay), Democrats (19
aye, 38 nay) or, alternatively, ( 33.3% aye, 66.7% nay). Probability
vectors have been written in percentage notation so that Figure 1
has a reasonable size and all the entries are discernible. This mul.
tiplication does not affect the angles in the graph.
Two features of this graph deserve special emphasis. ( i) The
two parties differ substantially in size. This variation is concealed
by probability voting vectors ( r and d in the figure) but revealed
by data voting vectors ( R and D in the figure). If sheer size is a

1970)

781

RICE's INDICEs
FIGURE

UNITED STATES SENATE VOTE ON ]UDCE BLACKMUN, BY PARTY

Not Voting

]()()

80

60

40

20

G<~neral

Index of Differencc

In Percentage Notation

theoretically significant variable, then data vectors are superior to

probability vectors. For example, using data voting vectors, the
voting behavior of two sets of legislators cannot be identical if the
sets differ in size. ( ii) The cosine between two voting vectors
does not facilitate locating a point in space. The cosine should be
computed for the angle between each voting vector and the ayeaxis; the latter serves as a standard basis vector for cosine calculations in two dimensions.

782

THE J OURNAL OF POUTICS

[VOL. 32

Following the Senate's rejection of Judge Haynsworth, President

Nixon nominated Judge Harold Carswell for the Supreme Court
vacancy. That nomination was also rejected, by a vote of 45 ayes
to 51 nays, with four Senators not voting. Since the vote is threedimensional, a graph is omitted . However, an additional two-dimensional illustration is provided by the Senate vote on President
Nixon's third nominee, Judge Harry Blackmun. On May 12, 1970i
Judge Blackmun was confirmed by a vote of 94 ayes to 0 nays, with
six Senators not voting. Although that vote is two-dimensiona l,
every Senator did not vote; so, Rice's indices are not equivalent to
the general indices in this case. The partisan breakdown of the
vote was as follows: Republicans ( 40 aye, 3 not voting ) or, alternatively, (93.0% aye, 7.0% not voting ), Democrats (54 aye, 3 not
voting) or, alternatively, ( 94.7% aye, 5.3% not voting). Figure 2
graphically represents this vote. The probability vectors, r and d in
the graph, have been written in percentage notation; the data vectors, R and D. thus are easily squeezed into a figure of reasonable

S IZe.

C oNCLusioNs

Rice's indices can be interpreted and generalized in terms of

probability vectors, and thus the original indices' restriction to a
two-option universe can be transcended. From a geometrical point
of view, however, both the generalized indices and the original indices are incomplete, that is, they fail to specify or imply the location of a probability voting vector as a point in space. Furthermore, from the perspective of probability vectors, both the generalized and the original indices have an ad hoc or arbitrary appearance.
Mathematically similar but simpler expressions are obtained by
using the norm of a probability voting vector as a measure of "cohesion" and by using the distance between two probability voting
vectors as a measure of "difference." If these measures are supplemented by the relevant cosines, then the algebra of probability vectors can be fully exploited for the analysis of legislative voting b ehavior.
D ata vectors as well as probability vectors furnish a mathematical notation or model for the study of legislative voting behavior.
Probability voting vectors can be derived from data voting vectors,
but the converse is not true in general. Thus probability voting

1970]

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783

vectors conceal or destroy information that is routinely obtained in

the course of an analysis. For this reason, since no established theory for legislative voting exists, the model of data vectors seems
preferable to the model of probability vectors. (Pace Rice.) If
the norm (magnitude) and N-1 cosines (where N is the number of
dimensions ) are calculated for each data voting vector, then linear
algebra can be used without restraint.