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I'm looking for the title and author of a book.

I believe the action takes place in XXth century's USA, in an alternative history. Statistical and political analyses made huge progresses, to the point that they can forecast with a 100% accuracy the result of upcoming elections. A president is about to be elected, and their analysis show that the result of the election will actually be decided by a single man. They start looking for this man, to ask him to vote, and, actually, to decide who will be the next president.

Does that ring a bell? I'm sorry if the plot I described is vague, I never read that book, just remember hearing someone mention it.

Clément
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1 Answers1

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This sounds like Franchise, a 1955 short story by Isaac Asimov. In Franchise, Asimov's grand computer, Multivac, selects a single person to answer a series of questions which determines the result of the election. Also see this similar post on the Sci-Fi and Fantasy SE, which includes a fuller description and a link to the story in the comments.

muru
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