With the score tied in the 10th inning of game three of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, a Reds batter bunted with one man on base. Boston’s catcher, Carlton Fisk, quickly pounced on the ball, but the batter got in the way. Fisk’s throw to second went wild and the runner on base eventually scored, but the umpire refused to call interference. The call remains controversial to this day, part of baseball lore with some believing the call deprived the Red Sox of a World Series win.
Major League Baseball made great strides 33 years later when it instituted instant replay. Now both the decision-makers and fans have access to a clear — and identical — view of what happens on the field. Had that technology been available in 1975, maybe the transparency would have discouraged some of the bickering.
But when details remain hidden, people often make assumptions about what they cannot clearly observe. This seeds doubt.
When Pennsylvania counted its ballots in 2020, observers simply could not see what was happening in many counties in Pennsylvania, especially the larger ones like Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania legislature had just changed the law, no longer requiring an excuse to vote on a paper mail ballot before election day. Almost the same laws that historically applied to processing a limited number of paper absentee ballots remained in place for the thousands — or in larger counties, hundreds of thousands — of paper mail ballots.
