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[Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>]

on Thu, Nov 09, 2000 at 10:01:27AM -0500, mdthomas AT mindspring.com wrote:
> 
> What am I missing?
> 
> Shouldn't election returns be a simple UI & 
> data processing problem? Where's the ballot
> usability lab? What about an error-free protocol
> for tabulation?
> 
> I'm simply amazed that the results have varied as
> much as they did. I predict election return processing
> is the next great growth segment -- I can hear
> the VC money trickling in now...

You'd think that after a hundred years since Hollerith, they'd have
gotten it right. But no...

Here's what I came up with:

 http://hesketh.com/schampeo/buchanan/buch1.gif
 http://hesketh.com/schampeo/buchanan/buch2.gif
 http://hesketh.com/schampeo/buchanan/buch3.gif
 http://hesketh.com/schampeo/buchanan/buch4.gif

All graphs are based on percentage of total votes cast per county, using

 http://www.tcpalm.com/_special/pres_returns.shtml

for the data.

buch1: all counties, sorted by percentage for Gore (blue) to
percentage for Bush (red), with Buchanan as white segment at top (who
says I don't have a sense of humor?) Note that Palm Beach has a
disproportionately high Buchanan vote, but not really that unusual
compared to St. Lucie, nearby.

buch2: all counties, sorted by percentage for Buchanan. Note big dip in
votes for Bush (red) compared to other counties with high Buchanan support.

buch3: similar to buch2, but only showing counties that voted greater
than %0.50 for Buchanan. Palm Beach really sticks out here, even though
it's not labeled (anyone a Mac Excel 2001 wiz here?) - it's right before
Swannee, eighth from the right.

buch4: I believe this is counties with a higher than %0.50 for Buchanan,
and higher than %50 for Bush (except for Palm Beach and Jefferson).

The Excel spreadsheet is here, if anyone wants to tweak the data or
check behind me. I'm cranked up on Theraflu, so I make no representations
as to the accuracy, historical significance, or appropriateness of any
color choices, etc. Consider yourselves disclaimed.

 http://hesketh.com/schampeo/buchanan/buch.xls

Of course, it all boils down to whether anyone in Palm Beach would be
liable to actually vote for the racist pig in the first place, but I
figured it'd be fun to slap some of the data around in Excel to see if
I could figure out any trends.

Steve

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