WOIFM

Civil Rights Commission Report Flawed

The recent Civil Rights Commission Report on Florida voting rights was conducted by Alan Lichtman, a history professor at American University. Some fun facts about Lichtman:

• The commission selected him based on his testimony in January before the commission that there were "disparate" racial voting patters in Florida - the question he was hired to study later.
• The commission "did not know" when they hired him that he had served as a consultant for Al Gore.
• Lichtman's study was a statistical analysis which he says supported his conclusion - but he is a historian, not a statistician.
• The data which Lichtman analyzed came in large part from the Web.
• Lichtman is unable or unwilling to provide electronic copies of his data, to the point that Republican members on the commission have submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to get them. (He must have printed out the web sites he relied upon.)

Just a few things to consider, when reflecting on the common wisdom that Democrats play fair and Republicans don't.