Friday, November 19, 2004
FLORIDA, THE BAD DREAM STATE
Just when you thought it was over, a number of new reports of voting irregularities in Florida. The most serious: University of California (Berkley) researchers find 130,000 over-vote for Bush, mostly in counties that went for Gore last election, and all using electronic (touch screen voting machines. From SALON:
"It’s not proof of voter fraud -- at least not yet -- but it seems that somebody has some explaining to do about the election results from Florida. In a report released this morning, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, say that George W. Bush received 130,000 more votes in Florida in 2004 than he should have received, and that the only real explanation has something to do with electronic voting machines.
Through multiple-regression analysis, the Berkeley researchers examined the increase in Bush’s support, on a county-by-county basis, between 2000 and 2004. Their conclusion: A county’s use of electronic voting machines resulted in a "disproportionate increase" in votes for Bush which "cannot be explained away by other factors."
The disparity between the votes Bush received and the votes statistical models said he should have received was largest in those e-voting counties where Al Gore was strongest in 2000: Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade. Michael Hout, the Berkeley sociology professor who presented the researchers' findings today, said that he could not explain why the disparity was so high in counties that favored Gore in 2000, nor could he explain how the electronic voting machines might have over-counted Bush votes. But he said that there’s virtually no possibility -- a one in 1,000 chance that he called "trivial" -- that the voting disparities arose by chance. "
Incidently....no such disparity found in Ohio!
"It’s not proof of voter fraud -- at least not yet -- but it seems that somebody has some explaining to do about the election results from Florida. In a report released this morning, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, say that George W. Bush received 130,000 more votes in Florida in 2004 than he should have received, and that the only real explanation has something to do with electronic voting machines.
Through multiple-regression analysis, the Berkeley researchers examined the increase in Bush’s support, on a county-by-county basis, between 2000 and 2004. Their conclusion: A county’s use of electronic voting machines resulted in a "disproportionate increase" in votes for Bush which "cannot be explained away by other factors."
The disparity between the votes Bush received and the votes statistical models said he should have received was largest in those e-voting counties where Al Gore was strongest in 2000: Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade. Michael Hout, the Berkeley sociology professor who presented the researchers' findings today, said that he could not explain why the disparity was so high in counties that favored Gore in 2000, nor could he explain how the electronic voting machines might have over-counted Bush votes. But he said that there’s virtually no possibility -- a one in 1,000 chance that he called "trivial" -- that the voting disparities arose by chance. "
Incidently....no such disparity found in Ohio!
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I live in Palm Beach County -and I can tell you it is not by chance that Bush received more votes here this year than Gore did last election. It can all be explained quite logically: People didn't like Kerry. Even many Democrats didn't like Kerry. Even many people who ended up voting for what they thought was the lesser of two evils didn't vote for Kerry. If the Democrats want to win elections, they've got to run better candidates.
Steve P
Steve P
# posted by 
: 11:49 AM
: 11:49 AM
That would be a plausable explaination, except the only counties where this phenomenon occured were the ones using electronic voting machines.
Perhaps you're not taking into account that almost all counties in Florida have switched to electronic machines since the last election -in many counties it was mandated (Palm Beach County for instance) because it was felt by both parties that there was less possibility of manipulation and voter fraud or human error. Another thing that has been misrepresented in the news. I've heard many people say that the Florida machines don't provide a paper record. Not true. They do not automatically generate a paper trail (I think that Iowa was the only state to have electronic machines that automatically give a print out to each voter after voting). But, as with most other states, the machines used in Florida store the input information and can generate a paper record for examination if needed.
Steve P
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Steve P
# posted by : 10:30 AM
: 10:30 AM << Home
