Variables:
A data frame with 22 observations on the following 8 variables.
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year
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a numeric vector, year of election, 19xx
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district
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a numeric vector, Pennsylvania State Senate district
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absdem
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a numeric vector, absentee ballots cast for the Democratic candidate
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absrep
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a numeric vector, absentee ballots cast for the Republican candidate
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machdem
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a numeric vector, votes cast on voting machines for the Democratic candidate
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machrep
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a numeric vector, votes cast on voting machines for the Republican candidate
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dabs
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a numeric vector, Democratic margin among absentee ballots
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dmach
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a numeric vector, Democratic margin among ballots case on voting machines
Details
In November 1993, the state of Pennsylvania conducted elections for its state legislature. The result in the Senate election in the 2nd district (based in Philadelphia) was challenged in court, and ultimately overturned. The Democratic candidate won 19,127 of the votes cast by voting machine, while the Republican won 19,691 votes cast by voting machine, giving the Republican a lead of 564 votes. However, the Democrat won 1,396 absentee ballots, while the Republican won just 371 absentee ballots, more than offsetting the Republican lead based on the votes recorded by machines on election day. The Republican candidate sued, claiming that many of the absentee ballots were fraudulent. The judge in the case solicited expert analysis from Orley Ashenfelter, an economist at Princeton University. Ashenfelter examined the relationship between absentee vote margins and machine vote margins in 21 previous Pennsylvania Senate elections in seven districts in the Philadelphia area over the preceding decade.
