Read other letters about this article

• Monday, June 5, 2006 10:59 AM

  A couple of noticeable oddities

  First, kudos to RFK Jr for re-igniting this needed conversation,

  and shame on Kerry's early concession which really went

  far in sweeping this mess under the rug. Let us, as a nation,

  break from our denial and deal with these massive dilemmas!

  Second, I can appreciate Manjoo's attempt at answering many

  of the important questions raised -- at least he has the guts

  to talk about the problems in depth. However, he is clearly too

  dismissive of those trying to get to the truth, and he stops far

  short of getting there himself. Either he gets lost in a zeal to

  debunk that he seals himself off from objectivity, or he is being

  disingenuous. Neither scenario is good.

  Now, to the oddities:

  1. Manjoo cites average response rates in Kerry vs. Bush strongholds,

  but his numbers don't hold water. The point that Kennedy makes is

  that the strongholds are at least 80% to 20% in favor of one candidate.

  You can't simply say Kerry voters responded 59% of the time and Bush

  voters 53%... and there you have an average 56% response. There would

  be far more Bush voters responding, thus weighting the average response

  rate at that site closer to 53%.

  2. Manjoo's point that the individual state exit polls were within their

  margin of error is disingenous and inconsistent, since Kennedy makes the point that the national exit poll had a margin of error of 1% and the

  discrepancies were far outside of the margin of error (no, not as far as

  Ukraine, but that's irrelevant).

  3. Manjoo uses the well-worn tactic of saying if there was fraud,

  Democrats (and god-forbid African American Democrats!) had to

  be complicit. Perhaps, but we all know well that Democrats (and

  god forbid African American Democrats!) can also be corrupt.

  4. He doesn't even address some of the major points in Kennedy's

  piece, notably the touch screens switching off Kerry votes, among

  many other points.

  It's hopeful to see that this issue hasn't faded away into the aether

  just yet, but we're running out of time before they destroy Ohio election

  documents (September 2006)!

  —eli b.
  Permalink
  Flag
  Click "Submit Flag" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

  Cancel