Could Pat Buchanan really have received 3,000+ votes in Palm Beach, Flordia? Of course not, scoff the media and Democrats. To prove it a chart plotting total votes received by Buchanan in Palm Beach has been repeatedly shown on numerous television stations and printed in quite a few newspapers — the chart is very effective since the Palm Beach vote totals dwarf Buchanan’s vote totals in other counties.
In fact the chart is a statistical lie. As the Independent Institute points out, the important thing to know when deciding if Buchanan received a disproportionate number of votes in Palm Beach is to compare the percentage of votes he received in that county compared to the rest of Florida. Plot the chart like that, and the result is unspectacular.
The full press release and explanation behind the plot is at the Independent Institute’s web site, but here’s Buchanan’s votes plotted as a percentage of total votes cast,
