In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Rich Ulrich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
..............
> - When I asked before about 'statistical' adjustment of political
>ballots, Herman Rubin volunteered that he had heard of vote totals
>for candidates being reduced proportionately to make the overall total
>come out to something not-greater-than the total number of voters.
>I had never heard of that.
This was done when mechanical voting machines were used, keeping
totals only. What else COULD be done?
> - Since then, I heard a correspondent on TV mention possibilities for
>cases like "Seminole County" where there is a challenge concerning a
>fraction of the absentee ballots. He said that it was possible that
>they could disallow a fraction of the absentee votes -- which I
>understood to mean, a strict fraction of the 15,000 ballots, since I
>did not think they could identify the exact votes.
>Is it possible that they could find and remove the exact ballots, as a
>friend suggests to me?
No. The claimed errors were on the applications for the ballots,
and the identification of who cast the absentee ballots is removed
before the ballots are counted, for obvious reasons.
>Or, was this the statistical solution that I imagined, which was kind
>of a poorly aimed remedy, since it would have an effect only because
>2/3 of the absentee votes happened to go to one candidate?
That would be the case.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
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