Friday, November 05, 2004

Another look...

I probably should not post anything right now, having worked all night while running a temperature. (At times like these, one almost expects to see leprechauns.) But I need to correct a false impression.

Earlier, I referred to tiny Jackson County in Florida, where the voters are mostly registered Democrats who -- surprisingly -- voted overwhelmingly for Bush. This phenomenon occurs in odd little counties elsewhere in the state. Evidence of fraud? Maybe not, unless you want to argue that the fraud extends back in history. (Well, this is Florida, after all -- land of the voting dead.)

I've just been given access to the data for that county for past election cycles. Bottom line: They really do tend to vote Republican at the top of the ticket, and Democratic when it comes to congressional seats and such. The pro-Republican tilt in this election was heavier than usual, however.

Can this be a state-wide phenomenon? There are other counties in Florida with odd voting patterns. A correspondent calls the inhabitants of Jackson County "hillbillies." I didn't know Jethro and Jed could be so schizy.

None of this invalidates the over-all allegation of computerized vote tampering. We certainly do not have an explanation for the poll/tally disparity, which keeps cropping up over and over.

Another correspondent reminds me that the issue is not whether computers or optical scans are used at polling places, because the vote for all counties is tabulated on a central computer, which is hackable. If we posit a system programmed to switch a small percentage of votes in each county, many mysteries are explained.

No comments: