On Tue, 5 Dec 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> The message below is at:
> 
> http://www.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/threadmsg_if.xp?AN=701156345&fmt=text
> 
> Legal sophistry is truly amazing, especially the use of the phrase
> "reasonable probability." This case has absolutely nothing to do
> with statistics or with probability. It is a simple case of
> arithmetic--look at the undervote ballots.

There is nothing *wrong* with "undervote" ballots. Voters are not
required to vote on every office and every question on the ballot.
Probably, *most* people who vote don't fill out their ballots
completely. Voters who choose not to vote for any of the candidates
for president have just as much right to have their vote counted as
anybody else, and it is *wrong* to take their votes and donate them to
one or another of the candidates. No doubt, many voters make mistakes,
but there is no particular reason to think the *undervotes* are
mistakes: you could just as well say that lots of people who punched
the Gore hole really meant to vote for one of the other candidates.

> If this is not done by Florida officials, it will be done by the
> media under the FOI law. Unless these ballots are destroyed, we
> will know the true results. It's only a matter of time.

How are we going to do that, have psychics handle the ballots? That
might work. The problem is, if they are really psychic, they would be
able to tell who cast the vote, and that would violate the secrecy of
the ballot.

-- 
                It takes steel balls to play pinball.



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