Okay, maybe this has already been covered and I just missed it, but I have a question purely as a statistical anomaly...
In the first statewide mandatory recount, where most all the other counties recount results were within an extremely small percentage variance of the original results (some with zero variance), and both candidates either lost or gained votes at close to the same ratio as total votes cast for each one, why is it that a couple of counties, but most notably PBC, has such a wide variation after the recount?
Has there been any reason given that would explain that, such as clerical error in the original numbers reported or what? The numbers just don't follow the rest of the state for some reason and I'm wondering if anybody could shed some light on it. The Gore/Bush percentage overall in the vote was 62%/36%. So one would expect that if errors were made the numbers following the recount would pretty much reflect that ratio but they don't come anywhere near that. After the recount, both candidates gained votes but the votes gained for each was Gore +787, Bush +105. Thats more than a 7 to 1 ratio while the original was less than 2 to 1.
Same goes for Pinellas County, but even more so. Original ratio of Gore/Bush votes was 50%/47%. After recount totals Gore gained +417 and Bush
lost -61. Thats about an 8 to 1 ratio while the original was virtually even or about 1 to 1.
In Duval County Bush had the greater percentage of votes at ~152,000 to Gore's 108,000, but in the recount Gore gained 184 votes and Bush only 16. Little more than 1 to 1 ratio with advantage Bush but recount change is almost 12 to 1 in Gore's favor.
Hmmmm, lets see. Gore votes gained in PBC 787, in Pinellas 417, in Duval 184. Thats 1388 more for Gore. Bush gained in PBC 105, in Pinellas lost 61, in Duval 16 Thats 60 more for Bush. Net gain for Gore in these 3 counties that seem to be statistical anomalies is 1328. What was the original difference between the two before the recount?
Of course I realize this is backwards statistics, but I find it interesting none the less. On the surface it looks like some shenanigans going on and it could either be on the Bush side in the original count or on the Gore side in the recount. However, since I know that PBC is mostly Democrat controlled and it has one of the biggest anomalies, and I can't help being a little partisan

, I'd be a little more inclined to lean more toward the latter, at this point. I don't know about the make-up of Pinellas and Duval so maybe somebody could fill that in. Democrat or Republican controlled?
One more item of note also that seems to be way out of kilter statistically, statistically even more so than any of the above, is in Martin County. More Bush voters to the tune of ~ 34,000 Bush to 27,000 Gore but still not a huge ratio (55%/43%), but in the recount Bush picked up 106 votes while Gore only gained 1 vote. Thats a ratio of course of 106 to 1!
These four counties (see *'s below) seem to have very high statistical anomalies in the recount while most of the others are pretty close to about net change being equal for each one as compared to ratio of votes cast for each one in the original count. Anybody have any insight/explanations or thoughts on this? And please don't assume this is a
completely partisan post. I'm just interested in the numbers and why they're so out of whack with the rest of the counties. There are a couple more oddities in the results but I didn't throw those in here. For instance Nassau County where BOTH lost a pretty significant amount of votes.
I'll try to put up a listing of all totals but this particular chart is the preliminary AP one before official totals. Its pretty close but not exact. Where I'm getting the official #'s from brings up one county at a time and not about to go thru copying and pasting them one at a time. Also, it has been arranged in the order of net change for Gore in descending order. I'm not going to try and get the table straight so you'll have to do the deciphering.
COUNTY------GORE VOTES-------BUSH VOTES------GORE CHANGE------BUSH CHANGE
Palm Beach.... 269,696.... 152,954.... 751.... 108 *
Pinellas.... 200,629.... 184,823.... 417.... -61 *
Seminole.... 59,174.... 75,677.... 286.... 384
Polk.... 75,196.... 90,191.... 219.... 90
Duval.... 107,864.... 152,098.... 184.... 16 *
Gadsden.... 9,735.... 4,767.... 170.... 17
Orange.... 140,220.... 134,517.... 105.... 41
Alachua.... 47,365.... 34,124.... 65.... 62
Dade.... 328,764.... 289,492.... 62.... 36
Broward.... 386,561.... 177,323.... 43.... 44
Lee.... 73,560.... 106,141.... 30.... 18
Hillsborough.... 169,557.... 180,760.... 28.... 47
Citrus.... 25,525.... 29,766.... 24.... 22
Okaloosa.... 16,948.... 52,093.... 24.... 50
Holmes.... 2,177.... 5,011.... 23.... 26
St. Johns.... 19,502.... 39,546.... 20.... 49
Marion.... 44,665.... 55,141.... 17.... 6
Lake.... 36,553.... 49,974.... 16.... 47
Highland.... 14,167.... 20,206.... 15.... 10
Pasco.... 69,564.... 68,582.... 14.... 1
Collier.... 29,918.... 60,433.... 13.... 7
Putnam.... 12,102.... 13,447.... 11.... 8
Manatee.... 49,177.... 57,952.... 8.... 4
Gulf.... 2,397.... 3,550.... 8.... 4
Union.... 1,407.... 2,332.... 8.... 6
Sarasota.... 12,802.... 36,274.... 7.... 26
Flagler.... 13,897.... 12,613.... 6.... 5
Liberty.... 1,017.... 1,317.... 6.... 1
Walton.... 5,642.... 12,182.... 5.... 6
Charlotte.... 29,645.... 35,426.... 4.... 7
Osceola.... 28,181.... 26,212.... 4.... -4
Franklin.... 2,046.... 2,454.... 4.... 6
Hamilton.... 1,722.... 2,146.... 4.... -7
Sumter.... 9,637.... 12,127.... 3.... 1
Wakulla.... 3,838.... 4,512.... 3.... 1
Bradford.... 3,075.... 5,414.... 3.... 1
Jefferson.... 3,041.... 2,478.... 3.... -3
Madison.... 3,014.... 3,038.... 3....
Clay.... 14,632.... 41,736.... 2.... -9
Washington.... 2,798.... 4,994.... 2.... 11
Taylor.... 2,649.... 4,056.... 2.... 6
Glades.... 1,442.... 1,841.... 2.... 1
Martin.... 26,620.... 33,970.... 1.... 106 *
Hendry.... 3,240.... 4,747.... 1.... 4
Dixie.... 1,826.... 2,697.... 1.... -1
Lafayette.... 789.... 1,670.... 1.... 1
Santarosa.... 72,853.... 83,100.... -1....
Indian River.... 19,768.... 28,635.... -1.... 8
DeSoto.... 3,320.... 4,256.... -2....
Hardee.... 2,339.... 3,765.... -2.... 1
Levy.... 5,398.... 6,858.... -5.... -2
Suwannee.... 4,075.... 8,006.... -9.... -8
Escambia.... 40,943.... 73,017.... -15.... -12
Nassau.... 6,879.... 16,280.... -73.... -124
Brevard.... 97,318.... 115,185
Volusia.... 97,063.... 82,214
Leon.... 61,425.... 39,053
St. Lucie.... 41,559.... 34,705
Hernando.... 32,644.... 30,646
Bay.... 18,850.... 38,637
Monroe.... 16,483.... 16,059
Columbia.... 7,047.... 10,964
Jackson.... 6,868.... 9,138
Okeechobee.... 4,588.... 5,057.... -1
Baker.... 2,392.... 5,610
Calhoun.... 2,155.... 2,873
Gilchris.... 1,910..... 3,300
Red You might want to browse through this chart for yourself. Perhaps you might could begin to see where some people get the idea that something just doesn't pass the smell test in this election. I personally think it smells on the Democratic side, BUT, I will admit to being partisan and I realize that, but I'm not blindly partisan. I also realize that if you look at it from the other side, it could smell just as badly on the original count totals. Whoever is stinkin' it up doesn't change the fact that it still smells. I believe that there's more evidence of "smellousness" on the other side but I would certainly be willing to be proven wrong.
Sorry Russ for posting a novelette in your thread, but I figured it was as good here as in one of its own.
<edit> worked on the table a little bit for the sight impaired <edit>