COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
One interesting race out this way is Minnick vs Labrador. You'd think Labrador would win in the Id.1stbut Real Clear Politics has him a little behind. He doesn't have as much money for one thing and Boise has grown. Minnick has voted with Pelosi 73% of the time, he is trying to cover this fact up by running ads day and night.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a flesh wound...
ReplyDeleteThere is one mia culpa in the Buchanan story. It was not Dade County, but Palm Beach County where the anamoly occurred.
ReplyDeleteThe votes for Buchanan were definitely for him, Q. They could have been counted and recounted ad nauseum and the result would not have changed.
It was the design of the ballot, which put the punch hole for Mr Buchanan at the spine of the ballot book, to the immediate left of Mr Gore's name.
Mr Gore's punch out, far to the right of the page.
It was in this configuration that Mr Buchanan received an inordinate number of votes. Well beyond the statistical norm and one that was not expected from the body of voters that inhabited the District.
Mr Buchanan received a couple thousand votes above what would have been expected. There was no fraud or miscount, no hanging chads. Just confused senior citizen voters that hit the wrong space.
The author estimates that 2,400 votes were "miscast" due to the ineptitude of the ballot designers and lack of attention to detail by the voters.
It was enough, though, to seal the election for Mr Bush.
(3) Most incredibly, the Buchanan vote of .85% among election day voters is almost four times bigger than the Buchanan vote of .23% of absentee voters.
In short, while the absentee vote for Buchanan in Palm Beach County is what we expected based upon our models, the election day votes in Palm Beach County are extraordinarily anomalous.
A look at the absentee ballot (Figure 2) makes it clear why this is so. The absentee ballot in Palm Beach County was designed much differently than the election day ballot. It lists candidates in columns with controls to the right. As a result, there is virtually no chance that a voter will inadvertently circle one candidate when intending to vote for another.
In short, I believe far beyond a reasonable doubt that it was the election day ballot that created the anomalous Buchanan vote percentage in Palm Beach County.
In addition, a comparison of the Buchanan vote among those who cast absentee ballots with the vote of those who cast election day ballots provides an excellent measure of the number of mistakes caused by the butterfly ballot.
Why are there so many Buchanan Voters in Palm Beach County?
That butterfly ballot, a product of a Democratic election board.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between the vote share for election day voters of .85% and this figure of .23% for absentee voters is an excellent and very conservative measure of the mistakes caused by the Butterfly ballot. This approach yields an error rate percent of .62% (calculated from 85% - .23%) on the 386,731 votes that were initially reported as cast on election day. This amounts to about 2,400 Buchanan votes that were cast in error and only about 1,000 votes from true Buchanan supporters.
ReplyDeleteEverything2
ReplyDeletePalm Beach County's Screwed Up Ballots
Wed Nov 08 2000 at 16:18:16
If you've been following cnn.com, you may have noticed a small story about confusion over the ballot booklets in Palm Beach County, Florida. This is where I live.
I voted yesterday. They ARE confusing. I had to double-check my card. Basically, because of the way the presidential candidates were laid out, it was very possible to accidentally vote for Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore.
November 9, 2000
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• Pat Buchanan agrees with the Gore campaign that the Palm Beach County ballot was confusing and says he believes many of his votes there were meant for Gore.
It was a long and winding road, that led to Mr Obama becoming President.
ReplyDeleteHelped along by the ineptitude of Democrats in Florida, dating back to the 2000 election.
Mr Bush winning Florida, in 2000 with ...
ReplyDeletea margin of victory of 537 votes.
These people LOVE the Rock I will to destroy...
ReplyDeleteThese are the INNOCENTS that T's is worried about and that our very own Cliff Claven respects and defends..
Gazan crowd chants 'Death to America,' 'Death to Israel'
Tens of thousands of supporters and sympathizers of the terrorist Palestinian Islamic Jihad group were reported to have rallied in the streets of Gaza on Friday to show their opposition to the stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The crowds were heard chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."
Israel will not bring peace to the region, it will only bring war and destruction and therefore, the slogan of all should be that Israel must be wiped out of existence," said Shallah. He warned of a "third Nakba" should the peace negotiations continue to fruition.
Senior Hamas leaders also joined the event.
"The choice of negotiation has reached deadlock, and we are wondering why is there such an insistence by the Palestinian Authority on negotiation with the enemy," said Shallah.
time to NUKE a rock...
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ReplyDelete.
You missed my point rat.
You are talking about votes in one county.
Even if the guys numbers are right (something that can never be proved), it is still only one county.
The Dems were pushing for a recount in only those counties where they thought it would help them. There was no way the GOP would allow that. If the Supremes hadn't acted, the GOP would have pushed for a complete statewide recount.
When independent organizations and papers looked at all the ballots statewide, they said Bush would have had an even larger lead.
The Monday morning quarterbacks on this one have created an urban legend and a market for conspiracy theory books.
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You are missing the point, Q.
ReplyDeleteIt is not a matter of recounts, it is a matter of stupidity.
The Democrats would have won, without the need of recounts if they had paid attention to ballot design.
They failed at the most basic of electoral levels, the graphic design of the ballot.
The issue has nothing at all to do with recounts, and everything to do with ineptitude of the elected or appointed officials.
That in this case they happened to be Democrats, and their error led to the election of GW Bush, helped them to get Barack Obama into the White House.
A long and winding road, indeed.
B.O.R.E.D.
ReplyDeleteI just got a birthday card in Swedish from my daughter.
ReplyDeleteNDE Study In WSJ
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ReplyDeleteI see your point on the stupidity rat and I accept it.
What I'm not convinced of is that the ballot design effected the final result of the elction, i.e. that GWB won.
Just as the Dems demanded a recount, if it had gone the other way, Bush would have demanded a recount. There were too many independent studies run in the weeks following the election that showed Bush would have picked up votes statewide if the votes were recounted.
Besides who really gives a shit.
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ReplyDeleteHey, is that Anonymous Bob from Idaho?
If so, where have you been?
Also your last link isn't working.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304248704575574193494074922.html
ReplyDeleteYo, tis
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ReplyDeleteSex and Candy
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ReplyDeleteCan you volunteer for that study Bob?
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ReplyDeleteFinger Eleven
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I already signed you up--in my place
ReplyDeleteMight as well have these too---
ReplyDeleteMSNBC: Head Toward the Light: The Science of Near-Death Experiences - written by Diane Mapes
bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/10/27/5355204-head-toward-the-light-the-science-of-near-death-experiences
Alabama Public Television Documentary on NDE's ~ Life After Death
www.aptv.org/VideoRoom/viewprogram.asp