I would use integers, but floating point is fine for storing integers, with no problems whatsoever. Theoretically someone could cheat by storing 1.125, but then, it would be obvious in the code they were doing that. You could also add an extra vote periodically with integers, which would also be obvious in the code (which is the same as what storing 1.125 is doing).

Either way you can cheat, and either way the code is going to be obvious what they're doing. The datatype doesn't really matter that much. This really doesn't prove anything.

The dirty secret in the software industry is that we have mass incompetence. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the programmers just use floating point for everything. We also don't know what language they're using, which may have soft datatypes.

Edit: In fact, the way you know these people are incompetent is that the cheating is so obvious. If they had just periodically added a vote so that it's a nice, smooth progression over time, nobody would notice it. But we got those wild reassignments.

I would use integers, but floating point is fine for storing integers, with no problems whatsoever. Theoretically someone could cheat by storing 1.125, but then, it would be obvious in the code they were doing that. You could also add an extra vote periodically with integers, which would also be obvious in the code (which is the same as what storing 1.125 is doing).

Either way you can cheat, and either way the code is going to be obvious what they're doing. The datatype doesn't really matter that much. This really doesn't prove anything.

The dirty secret in the software industry is that we have mass incompetence. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the programmers just use floating point for everything. We also don't know what language they're using, which may have soft datatypes.