Black Republicans & the Fla. Vote
Getting right to it. (Wow! Is it great to have AppleOutsider back!) This is from today's LA Times
<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-000090337nov12.story?coll=la-news-comment-op inions" target="_blank">GOP Was the Real Victim in Fla. Vote</a>
By JOHN R. LOTT Jr. and JAMES K. GLASSMAN, John R. Lott Jr. and James K. Glassman are resident fellows at the American Enterprise Institute. Lott has taught statistics and empirical methods at the University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania.
[quote]Last week, detailed statistics were released on voting in Florida during the presidential election. The data for the first time include all of the state's precincts, with not just information on race but on party affiliation.
At first glance, the numbers confirm the disturbing claims, repeated often this year, that African American ballots were "spoiled"--that is, not counted because they showed either no vote for president or multiple votes--at higher rates than the ballots of other groups.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was not alone in charging "a clear pattern of suppressing the votes of African Americans." Much less detailed data earlier this year caused the chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission to call for a criminal investigation.
The newspaper consortium that has been recounting the Florida votes will release a report today that is expected to highlight the racial disparity in the spoiled ballots, giving a boost to reform bills that are now moving swiftly through Congress to try to remedy the apparent problem.
But if spoiled ballots do indicate disenfranchisement, then the new data show that, by a dramatic margin, the group most victimized in the Florida voting was African American Republicans.
We discovered this stunning twist in an extensive analysis of the new data.
The new findings show that African American Republicans who voted in Florida were in excess of 50 times more likely than the average African American to have had a ballot declared invalid because it was spoiled....<hr></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-000090337nov12.story?coll=la-news-comment-op inions" target="_blank">GOP Was the Real Victim in Fla. Vote</a>
By JOHN R. LOTT Jr. and JAMES K. GLASSMAN, John R. Lott Jr. and James K. Glassman are resident fellows at the American Enterprise Institute. Lott has taught statistics and empirical methods at the University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania.
[quote]Last week, detailed statistics were released on voting in Florida during the presidential election. The data for the first time include all of the state's precincts, with not just information on race but on party affiliation.
At first glance, the numbers confirm the disturbing claims, repeated often this year, that African American ballots were "spoiled"--that is, not counted because they showed either no vote for president or multiple votes--at higher rates than the ballots of other groups.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was not alone in charging "a clear pattern of suppressing the votes of African Americans." Much less detailed data earlier this year caused the chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission to call for a criminal investigation.
The newspaper consortium that has been recounting the Florida votes will release a report today that is expected to highlight the racial disparity in the spoiled ballots, giving a boost to reform bills that are now moving swiftly through Congress to try to remedy the apparent problem.
But if spoiled ballots do indicate disenfranchisement, then the new data show that, by a dramatic margin, the group most victimized in the Florida voting was African American Republicans.
We discovered this stunning twist in an extensive analysis of the new data.
The new findings show that African American Republicans who voted in Florida were in excess of 50 times more likely than the average African American to have had a ballot declared invalid because it was spoiled....<hr></blockquote>
Comments
I have to wonder if the smaller number of black republicans compared to democrats could skew the results - every single instance of a bad ballot from a black republican would be magnified relative to a black dem.
BTW, is this the same Lott who did the "more guns = less crimes" stuff?
Oh well, I don't have any worthwhile replies to this - I just wanted to post at AI again.
:cool:
<strong>With all of the threads around on the boards already, why'd you post in this one then?
I guess I'm like a moth to roger ramjet's flame.
It's time for equality, not turning the tables and calling it equality. The world isn't fair or logical, get over it. The rest of us have to.
<strong>Oh please. I can barely stand reading that mindless blather.
It's time for equality, not turning the tables and calling it equality. The world isn't fair or logical, get over it. The rest of us have to.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Turning the tables and calling it equality? I guess you really did have a hard time reading that article. Or maybe you're just trying to change the subject. Nice try.
Get over what? The last election saw some of the most blatant and spurious racial appeals I've ever seen. And the post election was even worse. Do you really think sticking one's head in the sand will make all that go away? IMO, if an examination of the data doesn't bolster the arguments of people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton the interests of African-Americans will be better served.
<strong>Who cares? It's been like a year. Even I don't hold a grudge that long....</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well now I know the country really has changed.
What that article didn't mention is that if it weren't for the Supreme Court putting a stop to the highly illegal and problematic recounts, ALL Republicans would have been discriminated against. I know it sounds a little ridiculous, but I have to agree with Sinewave, Bush won many times over.
It is now suspected (though difficult to prove) that the media calling Florida early may have cost Bush 2,000,000 votes nationwide. (10,000 in the Panhandle alone).
Beat that with a stick....
[ 11-15-2001: Message edited by: SDW2001 ]</p>
[quote]These results are disturbing. They show that, if there was a concerted effort to prevent votes from being counted in Florida, that effort was directed at Republicans, not at African Americans.
This conclusion conforms with another fact that the new data reveal: Among white voters, Republicans were much more likely than Democrats to have spoiled ballots.
In addition, we found that the overall rate of spoiled ballots was 14% higher when the county election supervisor was a Democrat, and 31% higher when the supervisor was an African American Democrat.
<hr></blockquote>
For those not paying attention, this basically says that the election supervisors did a big no-no. Anyhow, if you Democrats/Bush haters want to cry foul, fine, it just don't fly here.