In a silly editorial, the non-reality-based editors of the Wall Street Journal offer groundless speculation that the undervotes under dispute in Florida's 13th Congressional district race were mostly Republican:
[I]f anyone ought to be complaining about undervotes, it's the GOP. Sarasota is the largest and most Republican county in the district, yet the Democrat, Ms. Jennings, carried it handily. In fact, it's the only county in the district that she did carry, which makes it more likely that it was Republicans who declined to vote in the Congressional race, not Democrats.
Do they do any research before writing these things? The Orlando Sentinel demolished this possibility more than a week ago:
The group of nearly 18,000 voters that registered no choice in Sarasota's disputed congressional election solidly backed Democratic candidates in all five of Florida's statewide races, an Orlando Sentinel analysis of ballot data shows.
Among these voters, even the weakest Democrat -- agriculture-commissioner candidate Eric Copeland -- outpaced a much-better-known Republican incumbent by 551 votes.
Meanwhile, if you want to read a serious analysis of why it seems like something went wrong in Sarasota County, the respected MIT political scientist Charles Stewart III submitted an expert deposition for the Jennings campaign in the court case there that is highly instructive.
Do they do any research before writing these things?
My guess: Yes, they just ignore anything they find inconvenient.
Posted by: Crust | December 04, 2006 at 03:52 PM