http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._Election_controversies_and_irregularities#Evidence_of_electro
nic_voting_bias
Yes, it is using the disputed "dixiecrat" counties, but it's using ALL counties that had optical scanners (yes, they happened to be more up North, but I don't think that debunks this.) If you look at the numbers, 27 counties in Florida "swung" for Bush despite having more registered Democrats, and in 47 counties, he had more votes than registered Republicans. You can say "dixiecrat," but adding up the Florida numbers, things just don't make sense. He got around 101% the vote of Registered Republicans in the state (this includes new registrations, I believe,) vs. in 2000 when he only got 85%, despite getting less of the undecideds and the same amount of Democrats, on percentage bases. And he lost the last election, if you include the Jews for Bucanan.
The disputed "dixiecrat" factor got much, much worse this year, when it should have gotten better. Those dixiecrats are a'growin!
Evidence of electronic voting bias
Note: As with all statistics, it is very important to consider other causes of apparent anomalies, and to provide verifiable and neutral source data that can be checked in a neutral way by third parties. All the information and sources below appear prima facie to be statistically reasonable in terms of both analysis and assumptions, and to be based upon verifiable public data.
(1) An analysis of Florida counties with 80,000 - 500,000 registered voters concluded (with a few caveats of a usual kind) that machine type (E-Touch vs Op-Scan) was a "significant predictor" of vote at the p < 0.001 level (less than one chance in a thousand of this degree of anomaly happening by chance) [7] (http://ustogether.org/election04/Little_Analysis.html) Source data and calculations [8] (http://ustogether.org/Florida_Election.htm).
(2) One website discusses Gahanna, Franklin Co. Ohio. The vote reported by the county in Gahanna precinct 1-B was 4,258 Bush, 260 Kerry, and the total votes cast in Gahanna overall were 20,736. However:
Gahanna has some 20,000 people elegible to vote and the reported turnout was around 70%. On a casual reckoning approximately 14,000 people voted, and yet nearly 21,000 votes were reported by voting machines.
4,258 Republican votes were electronically reported for Bush in Gahanna 1-B. But there were only 638 votes cast in the precinct. Furthermore the 3,893 extra individuals who are said to have queued to vote for Bush, and were therefore presumably Republican, did not appear to vote on any other matter bar the Presidency. (These other matters included the Senate race, County Commissioner, several County and State officials, and the imfamous Gay Unions vote, issues of great importance in the election.)
Source: [9] (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=201x1293), source data from govt website pdf (http://www.franklincountyohio.gov/boe/04UnofficialResults/Unofficial%20Abstract%20of%20Votes%20Gener
al%202004.pdf)
(3) An analysis reported in the New Zealand press looks at the differences between exit polls and reported voting in more detail. It identifies that in a selection of non-swing states, the exit polls and final results match. However in a large proportion of what were identified before the election as key swing states (Wisconsin, Pennysylvania, Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, etc.), the exit polls and final votes do not match.
The error was in each case a statistically anomalous and electorally critical 4 - 15% swing (change between exit polls and electronic voting) and furthermore the anomalies were not random. In each of the above swing states, this variation between what voters said they voted and what the machines reported was in favour of Mr. Bush. Source [10] (http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00072.htm), article discussing here (http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4175), graphs here (http://img103.exs.cx/img103/4526/exit_poll.gif).
(4) An interesting article (http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110604.html) comments that:
Exit polls into the evening of Nov. 2 actually showed Kerry rolling to a clear victory nationally and carrying most of the battleground states, including Florida and Ohio, whose totals would have ensured Kerry's victory in the Electoral College.
The exit polls covered both the Presidential and Senate races. The votes reported by voting machines for the Senate races were in line with the exit polls for the Senate race, however the votes reported by the same voting machines for the Presidency often significant disagreed with the exit polls for the Presidency.
It also comments that "Democratic suspicions also were raised by Republican resistance to implementing any meaningful backup system for checking the results on Diebold and other electronic-voting machines."
(5) There were additional reports of significantly large data irregularities with the "optical scan" type voting machines in at least Florida. In one county using optical scan voting machines for example, election records showed 77% registered democrats but Bush received 77% of the vote.
The encyclopedia on this is getting better by the day.