Sunday, June 21, 2009

Fuzzy Math

Have the votes for president been properly counted in Florida ?. On the surface, that's a question of simple math. But beneath the number crunching, Republicans and Democrats are waging a war of disguised biases. When data don't turn out the way your theory predicts, should you question the theory or the data ?. When a new vote tally contradicts an old one, should you distrust the first count or the second ?. When one kind of recount is more evenhanded but another is more comprehensive, which is better ?. These dilemmas form the hidden crux of the debate over whether to recount Florida's ballots by hand, as Democrats prefer, or to rely on a machine recount, as Republicans prefer. The two parties aren't being candid about these questions. And math won't answer them.

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