So check this out: This feller at CMU has done some VERY SIMPLE
statistical analysis on voting patterns in Florida. And
apparently either there's a lot of complete nutbag Nazi
freaks in Palm Beach County, or something went wrong with
that notorious ballot.
The guy did a linear regression on Buchanan votes vs. Gore votes, Buchanan votes
vs. Bush votes, and Buchanan votes vs. total votes. If you don't know what that
means, it's OK. Basically, on those graphs there, the dot marked "Palm Beach
County" should be more in a line with the other dots, and less up in the
stratosphere.
Of course, even though 80% of modern science is based on this kind of analysis
-- often with much less concrete underlying data -- there's probably some
Southern Republican flak who'd question the whole thing. "Elections are not
about what probably will happen, but what the people actually do." That
kind of thing.
