# Please decipher for me - Florida recount **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2000, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-decipher-for-me-florida-recount/40967 "2000-11-13T05:50:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2000, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-decipher-for-me-florida-recount/40967/21 "2000-11-15T00:35:51Z")
sailor - while the machine may “err” equally on both sides, the types of ballots were different in different counties. One of the problems involved was that the punch cards are susceptible to a misread by the machine, and the punch card type ballots were used mainly in Democratic counties. So, even if those machines erred 10% across the board in those counties, the resultant problem would be more of a problem for Gore than Bush. I don’t think that it’s reasonable to make the statement that we spend “unlimited time”, however, I also think that delaying the final tallies until the time when the overseas ballots come in (next Saturday) is not unreasonable either. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2000, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-decipher-for-me-florida-recount/40967/22 "2000-11-15T03:09:47Z")
Wring, I absolutely agree with you on every count. My only observation is that if the law provides for something else, then the law should be abided by even if it sounds unreasonable. Then, after the mess is over, get the lawsm, the machines, the ballots and everything else needed, changed to something that will work in the future without causing this mess again. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2000, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-decipher-for-me-florida-recount/40967/23 "2000-11-15T03:13:12Z")
BTW, if it is as you say that counties with a majority of democrats have a voting system more prone to errors and counties with a majority of republicans have a more accurate voting system… it looks like a pretty bad reflection on the democrats. I mean they want to run the country and they can’t count the votes right? ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2000, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-decipher-for-me-florida-recount/40967/24 "2000-11-15T13:06:51Z")
sailor, I have no idea why or how each county comes to use whatever system that they do. I suspect that neither do you. It does seem that this election has brought out some facts to us, the voting public, that we didn’t know before. I did not know what a “chad” was. Now I do. I had no idea that with the punch card ballots, that the machine would reject the vote if the “chad” wasn’t completely gone. Now I do. I did not know how often those machine counts were wrong. Now I do. And, I agree, that if nothing else, the voting public will have reason to ask questions the next time. Hopefully we’ll have all learned some important lessons here. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2000, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-decipher-for-me-florida-recount/40967/25 "2000-11-15T13:31:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > BTW, if it is as you say that counties with a majority of democrats have a voting system more prone to errors and counties with a majority of republicans have a more accurate voting system… it looks like a pretty bad reflection on the democrats. Well, the primarily Democratic counties in question (in Florida) tend to be urban counties, and the Republican counties suburban and rural. Since more accurate voting systems cost more, I think it’s more a matter of the urban counties not having enough funds to purchase the more expensive systems. As an aside (and something I think is interesting), I heard a reference on the news this morning about a potential plan where the Feds would help financially strapped counties purchase better voting equipment, so that everyone is on an equal footing. Can’t remember who was proposing it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-decipher-for-me-florida-recount/40967/26 "2000-11-16T14:52:39Z")
As a matter of interest regarding the OP, the following article has a pretty comprehensive discussion of the statistical issues involved. The author comes to the conclusion that a full Florida recount has a 1-in-3 chance of producing a Gore win (i.e. odds are 2:1 that it won’t). Personally, if the odds are as high as 30%, it seems to me the expense of a recount is trivial compared to actually giving the country a sense that the results of the election are valid. [http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/recount/](http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/recount/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-decipher-for-me-florida-recount/40967.md?page=1)