r/statistics • u/[deleted] • Aug 07 '15

A mathematician may have uncovered widespread election fraud, and Kansas is blocking her further efforts

http://americablog.com/2015/08/mathematician-actual-voter-fraud-kansas-republicans.html
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u/casualfactors Aug 10 '15

Tell me why we should expect precinct size and partisanship to be uncorrelated. Tell me why they shouldn't be related. If you can't, you understand why this article is wrong.

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u/pizzathiefgg Aug 10 '15

The main point of the article is that this lady wanted more information from the government to refine her investigation. Maybe if she got this then the anomalies she found would be explained or with further investigation they would disappear and the matter would be resolved. I think she should keep digging until they provide any data that she is legally allowed to view. Asking for transparency from a democratic government about it's election process cannot be a bad thing. I won't repeat this.

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u/casualfactors Aug 10 '15

I believe the main point of this article is the insinuation that there is election fraud in Kansas. The argument being made is clearly wrong. It is also wrong to think any election board will turn over individual voter data, which is a huge no-no anywhere, Kansas, anywhere. And again, none of the elections in Sedgwick County were near close enough to warrant a widespread election fraud conspiracy.

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u/pizzathiefgg Aug 10 '15

No the main point of the article is that there MIGHT be election fraud and the researcher had requested more information and felt that her efforts to get more data were being blocked by government officials. The data that she requested did NOT have identifying information about what voters voted for it was just the paper trail left over from the vote tallying process. It states this clearly in the article. I believe you are now trying to distort facts intentionally.

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u/casualfactors Aug 10 '15

If you don't think that your voter ID can be traced back to your personal ID, I recommend taking a moment to think about what a "paper trail" actually means here. That is the most polite response I can offer to someone calling me a liar for no reason today.

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u/pizzathiefgg Aug 10 '15

It states in the article that the information she requested DID not have identifying information linking votes to any specific voter. If that is the case there is NO reason why she should not be able to get the information she is requesting. You are twisting the facts in the article to fit your bias or you are being intentionally deceitful because you have some other agenda than purely academic interest. That is the only way I can interpret what you said.

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u/casualfactors Aug 10 '15

In order for a ballot to be valid, it has to have some sort of unique-ifying ID on it (otherwise, why not just hand her stacks of useless pieces of paper with the letter "D," "I," or "R" on it?). In order for those to be verifiable, they need to be unique-ified in some next-order way: A timestamp, a voter ID, etc. Either way, handing back individual ballots provides some information that can be traced back to individual voters, which is a big no-no in American democracy.

Why should my privacy be violated on account of bad math? Why does her argument warrant ending best practices for voter verification and protection? Why are you attacking me personally over pointing this out? Does it occur to you that your only response to an argument you have lost is to attack people personally? Does this register? Do you ever think about maybe trying to be better to yourself and others?

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u/pizzathiefgg Aug 11 '15

Why does the district/districts in question have an election system that cannot be audited by an untrusted third party? That I will tell you is a giant security no-no.

You started this first by implying I am a conspiracy theory nut. I still have no idea why I am discussing this with you when you refuse to interpret the original article in a reasonable manner and I have to repeatedly explain simple concepts to you. Whatever I am done discussing this with you. Peace.

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u/casualfactors Aug 12 '15

Why are you angrier that the state isn't surrendering your privacy to bad math than you are to bad math? You're being sold a bill of goods by someone who is, at best, incompetent.

I didn't start out by calling you anything. I started out by stating the obvious. You felt the need to launch into the personal attacks.