Exit Poll Data Discrepancies
The intrepid researchers on the "Internets" are continuing to investigate irregularities in the presidential election.
The latest discoveries concern recently released exit poll data:
In the data which is shown below in tabulated form, and above in graph form, we can see that 42 of the 51 states in the union swung towards George Bush while only nine swung towards Kerry.
There has to date been no official explanation for the discrepancy.
Ordinarily in the absence of an obvious mistabulation error, roughly the same number of states should have swung towards each candidate.
Moreover many of the states that swung against Democratic Party hopeful John Kerry swung to an extent that is well beyond the margin of error in exit polls. Exit polls by their nature - they ask voters how they actually voted rather than about their intentions - are typically considered highly accurate.
Last week in an analysis of a similar, but incomplete set of data, Dr Stephen F. Freeman from the University of Pennsylvania calculated that the odds of just three of the major swing states, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania all swinging as far as they did against their respective exit polls were 250 milllion to 1. (See . . . "The Unexplained Exit PollDiscrepancy" -- Dr Stephen F. Freeman - .pdf format)
Dr Freeman's academic paper contains a thorough description of why and how exit polls are conducted (in some countries they use them to prevent against vote fraud), and considers a number of hypotheses for why this year's polls could have been so dramatically wrong. He concludes that the reasons are unknown.
Was there electoral fraud committed, or did God intervene on behalf of his faithful servant, George W. Bush?
Is there a difference, if those committing the fraud acted on His behalf?
[Thanks to RS]
11:53:43 PM 
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