Is .80 cents same as 80 cents?

Question

Related to Polictics, but posting here hoping some math wizz can answer it....
On this tuesday election ballot in Arizona there was a tax increase on cigarettes for some state programs.(Proposition 203) Throghout the campaign it was advertised as 80 cent/pack or $8 carton tax rate. Now on the ballot they put"By voting Yes on this proposition means increasing the state tax on cigarettes (.80 cents/pack).(no mention of totaling $8 carton). The propostion passed 53 to 47 percent. Now here is the question....is .80 cents same as 80 cents or is there some legal way to challange this and say I voted for .80cents and its should be 80th of a cent and not 80 cents as the proposition proposed. And since The ballot said .80 cents/pack why should i be charged 80 cents/pack. Confusing as it can be, anyone has a simple answer whether it is challangeable in court, if the people behind prop. 203 try to impose it as 80 cents per pack rate.

Answer 1

No.

.80 cents = 8/10 of one cent

They probably made a typo on the ballot ... they probably meant to say $0.80 (which, as I'm sure you know, means 80 cents), but halfway in between (i.e. after writing (0.80)) they decided to write "cents" ... therefore ending up with "0.80 cents" rather than "$0.80".

As this real-life example you stumbled across illustrates so well, there is a scarily high degree of math illiteracy out there! It's frightening to think that the people writing up the ballots for a TAX couldn't even get the basic math correct!

~ ♥ ~

Answer 2

(1) Because of this error, it is possible the ballot could be voided altogether. There are criminal defense lawyers who are able to throw out convictions and obtain new trials based on Miranda Law arguments (which is not a requirement, but is used as one), or other technical errors such as shuffling the jury cards incorrectly as in the murder case of Tracy Gee in Houston. If the tobacco industry and lobbies have the money, they could well afford to hire the legal help to throw this out on a technicality.

(2) However, because of the financial cost of contesting and correcting the vote, this may not be deemed worth the public interest. It can easily be argued that the voters generally understood that .80 cents meant 80 cents when this is not actually the correct way to state it. Nowadays, more people seem more likely to understand .80 cents as 80 cents, than $ .80, unfortunately.

(3) My guess is that this error could have been deliberate to cause the vote to be thrown out later. If so, there should already be legal teams ready to challenge this tax if they saw it coming or worse planned it that way. In Houston, there have been constant problems with ordinances and propositions worded to confuse the voters on purpose. So I would not be surprised.

Note: I believe in policy formed by mediation and consensus, so that way you cannot defraud the public by manipulating the majority rule system of voting. The Green Party promotes consensus decision making and proportional representation. I believe we may need a Constitutional Amendment to protect the "consent of the governed" and mediation from political corruption of the democratic process.

Answer 3

I don't know, but probably not. When there were half cents and stuff, that probably would have been worth .80 (.8) cents. I think .80 cents is less than a cent, but .80 dollars is = to 80 cents.

Answer 4

I agree with you. The tax that was voted in is 8 tenths of a cent per pack, not 0.80 dollars. If the referendum is binding then it is certainly challengable in court. Go for it. A good way to start would be to file a complaint with your state governmental body that handles this, and also to contact your state representative and your state senator. Go for it.

Answer 5

.80 dollar = 80 cents, .80 cents = 4/5 penny

Answer 6

it doesn't matter if they put 80 cents or .80 cents because and way you write it (even though .80 is the proper way to write it) it is still the same amount.

Answer 7

.80=80cents

Answer 8

nope

Answer 9

no