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Voting Irregularities in Palm Beach County

Keywords: linear regression

Description

This data relates to the controversial United States Presidental Election in 2000 which was eventually awarded to George W Bush. According to several news accounts many voters in Palm Beach County, Florida, claimed that they were confused by the ballot structure and inadvertently voted for Buchanan when in fact they intended to vote for Gore. In the hours after the election, a discussion ensued among several academic friends and colleagues about whether such ballot confusion could be detected statistically since (apparently) Palm Beach county alone had the unusual ballot structure in Florida.

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2000 Florida presidential election, county-level
2000 Florida primary elections, county-level
2000 Florida party registration, county-level
1996 Florida presidential, election, county-level
1996 Florida Republican primary, county-level

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Analysis

Linear regression analysis shows that the large vote for Buchanan in Palm Beach County is very hard to explain unless many Gore-voters did indeed vote for Buchanan by mistake.