Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Final answer? Part Two: Final Harder

Max’s question in the comment to the recent post highlights the original problem. The judge starts talking, and the debater responds, and then the judge is not sure of the decision anymore.

Well, that could happen, for a variety of reasons. But here’s the issue. What about the other debater? Does he get to put his two cents in too? Going back to the first debater, how long does he have to speak in the afterround? How long does the opponent have to speak in the afterround rebuttal? What, exactly, are the rules for the debate after the debate is over?

That’s the crux of this. The debate is over. In this example, the decision has been made. Given the number of split decisions in multi-judge rounds, of course there’s more than one way to look at a round, and an alternate decision is often possible. But that alternate decision wasn’t made in this case, even if it might have been. At the point where we go off the clock, and beyond the rules, and are still arguing, and the ballot is still fair game, we lose the ability to provide a fair environment for the contest. When you think about it, most of the rules of the activity are devoted entirely to that fairness, rather than content.

Back to the beginning. The round ends when the timer sounds after the 2AR. Then the judge makes a decision, absent any interference, in a reasonable amount of time, studying the flow and, if necessary, calling for evidence. There can absolutely be no calls for clarification from the debaters: they already had 16 carefully regulated minutes each to do their clarifying. At the point where the judge announces that a decision is reached, and/or the ballot is collected, the decision is final.

1 comment:

K Menick said...

As I've always said: You want to know who won, if that's the new thing now, fine, I'll tell you. But we are not talking about it. Maybe, if you're lucky and time is plentiful, I'll give a brief RFD, but there is to be *no* response from the debaters other than clenched teeth and brief nods.