>>

>>
>>Florida     Optical Scan    Punch Card
>>
>>Bush votes     1,074,985     1,624,442
>>Gore votes       909,357     1,838,293
>>Overvotes         20,413        86,789
>>Undervotes         6,578        56,027
>>Total Ballots  2,063,490     3,685,520
>>% Undervote        0.32%         1.52%
>>
>>

>>
>>from www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/resources/ballot2.htm
>>
>>
>>If you apply the difference in the two percentages (1.20%) to the total ballots in the punch card counties and assume that the difference represent system failure rather than voter intention, you come up with 44,226 unintended undervotes out of 56,027 actual undervotes in the punch card counties.
>
>
>It is precisely in your ASSUMPTION that your logic fails. So many voters were undecided right up to the moment they walked into the booth that it is not unreasonable to say that the majority of the 'undervotes' were just that - a decision NOT to vote for either man.


Jerry, the percent of undervotes in the optical scan counties was .32%; the percent in the punch card counties was 1.52%.

Are you claiming that this difference is due to random chance?

Peter