Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Voter Fraud in Iran

Was the vote count in Iran manipulated?

The fact there were more votes counted in some parts of the country than people living there is a hint. But there is also the numbers seven and five to consider. What can they tell you about the election? Apparently, more than you would expect.

In legitimate elections, the distribution of numbers is random. But when people make up numbers, they have a tendency (studies have shown) to select some digits more frequently than others.

According to two political science students from Columbia University, there are too many 7s and not enough 5s in the last digits of Iran's vote totals. The digit 7 shows up 17% of the time while the number 5 appears just 4% of the time. That will only happen 4 times out of a hundred.

To give you a comparison, the last US Presidential election vote total shows these digits coming up no more than 14% of the time or and no less than 6%. That's just what you’d expect to happen in a real election 70% of the time.

But Iran also has a problem with sequential numbers. When we make up figures, we tend toward 3-4 or 5-6 or 8-9. We naturally use numbers that are right beside of each other. When you look at the votes from the various Iranian provinces, you notice that adjacent numbers come up too often.

The Columbia students say the chances that the same two issues would come up in a legitimate election is less than .005.

Hiding the truth is quite a difficult task, isn't it?

"You may be sure that your sin will find you out."

Numbers 32:23


Read more on what the students found by clicking here.

Stephen Goforth