After a bit of searching I found the links I needed. First go see this:
mail-archive.com@gmu.edu/msg00569.html
One Alexander T. Tabarrok, Ph.D. has this to say:
But Palm Beach County is an unusually large county.
"Buchanan received a lot of votes in Palm Beach County because there
are a lot of voters in Palm Beach County," says economist Dr.
Alexander T. Tabarrok, research director for The Independent
Institute. When votes cast for Buchanan are calculated as a
percentage of votes cast for all presidential candidates, the results
in Palm Beach County do not appear unusual.
But Palm Beach County is an unusually large county.
"Buchanan received a lot of votes in Palm Beach County because there
are a lot of voters in Palm Beach County," says economist Dr.
Alexander T. Tabarrok, research director for The Independent
Institute. When votes cast for Buchanan are calculated as a
percentage of votes cast for all presidential candidates, the results
in Palm Beach County do not appear unusual.
"The percentage of votes received by Pat Buchanan from voters
in Palm Beach County is consistent with his overall performance in
Florida," says Tabarrok.
Buchanan received 0.78 percent of the vote in Palm Beach
County. By comparison, he received an average of 0.46 percent of the
vote in the other Florida counties. (See accompanying charts.)
Although Buchanan received a larger share in Palm Beach County than
in the average Florida county he performed even better in some other
counties, such as Calhoun, where voting errors are not alleged to
have occurred. Buchanan's Palm Beach share of the vote did not depart
significantly from the average.
Some people may have mistakenly marked their ballots for
Buchanan in Palm Beach County as in other counties but there is no
evidence of this in the voting data. "The impression given by Salon,
CNN and others that Buchanan's vote in Palm Beach County was
unusually large is a statistical fraud. I am shocked and concerned
that reputable news organizations would present data in such a
misleading and naïve manner especially given the importance of clear
thinking at this time", said Tabarrok.
Look at the two plots shown in the link above. Indeed, the 1st one which was shown far and wide by Dems, commits the sin noted above, failure to normalize. Good for Mr Tabarrok. He then produces the 2'nd graph which is normalized by total county vote, which now shows Palm Beach looking a good deal more normal.
However, stare at the two graphs, and in particular, overlay them and ask yourself what you see, and think about this quote from Mr Tabarrok: "But Palm Beach County is an unusually large county.
"Buchanan received a lot of votes in Palm Beach County because there
are a lot of voters in Palm Beach County,"
What is going on? |
