Blog Entry

Ghost Votes

The news report came out couple days ago; it was based on an academic study done by the prestigious University of California, Berkeley. The study was led by the UC Berkeley sociology professor Michael Hout, with the contribution of a group of graduate students. The study found evidence that counties which conducted the presidential election with electronic voting could have mistakenly given President George Bush up to 260,000 votes. Although the mistake was not sufficient to sway the outcome of the 2004 Presidential Election, but the professor state the purpose of this study clearly:

“This is a no-vote-left-behind kind of project, not a change-the-president project,” said UC Berkeley sociology professor Michael Hout, who oversaw the research. “We’re as interested in the next election as the one just over.”

On Friday, scientist in MIT repeated the statistical analysis and was able to replicate the result. Now that the suspicion is confirmed, an investigation needs to be organized and carried out.

The UC Berkeley report has not been peer-reviewed, but a reputable MIT political scientist succeeded in replicating the analysis Thursday at the request of the Herald and The Associated Press. He said an investigation is warranted.

“There is an interesting pattern here that I hope someone looks into,” said MIT Arts and Social Sciences Dean Charles Stewart III, a researcher in the MIT-Caltech Voting Technology Project.

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