Friday, November 19, 2004

More academic work on voting irregularities

Again via the goddess echine.

Statisticians at UC Berkeley have found a correlation between use of electronic voting machines and an increase in the Bush vote from 2000 to 2004, which cannot be explained by a variety of factors typically used to explain changes in voting patterns, like median income.

Echine thinks that the case for a problem with the voting machines is now as strong as the case that cigarettes cause cancer. As I say in her comment forum, I wouldn't go that far. The argument is of the same form: a correlation with other causes screened out. However I think there are other causes that we would need to screen out before we cinch the case, including patterns of spending in Republican get out the vote drives. (Are their laws about the release of such information?)

Like, a skidillion Indians voted using touch screen machines in an election that was a surprise victory for the congress party. Does anyone know anything about how they handled these issues?

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