Are Vote Counting Errors Random?
This is not a post I enjoy writing, but I think I should prepare my fellow Republicans for some possible bad news. Let me begin by saying that the answer to my question is no. People tend to make mistakes that favor themselves or their team. For example, I have found that when I balance my checkbook I make mistakes in my favor about twice as often as I make mistakes in the bank’s favor. Grocery store checkers tend to err in favor of their customers, because that’s easier psychologically. I know that when I watch for a checker’s mistakes, I find myself telling them the total is too low far more often than I find myself telling them it is too high. The same pattern is found in vote counting. Counters tend to err in favor of their own party. Please understand that I am saying that people do this even if they do not intend to consciously. (I recall seeing, years ago, a study that found that counters tended to err in favor of their own parties. As I recall, and it has been many years, the s
