Research Methodology, pdf - 2B2B.org

I'll look up the exact source and quote later to give you but in my readings about voting
efficiency one organization estimated that the lost votes during the 2000 U.S. presidential
election could have been up to 2 million votes -- not exactly a precise accounting feat.
--
second letter:
The estimate of lost votes during the 2000 U.S. presidential election was four to six million, not
two million as I had previously written.
Here's the quote taken from Where to Now for E-Voting?:
"Amongst other problems, The CalTech/MIT Voting Technology Project estimated some four to
six
million votes were lost in 2000 due to ballot, equipment, registration or polling-place problems.
In
response, Americans clamoured for new voting technology to replace the ageing machines
peppering
US polling booths across the nation." (Bushell, 2003).
Even though we perhaps put too much weight on to brand name dependence, I think most people
would agree that MIT and CalTech are prestigiously reputable outfits and would trust their
research results. However, since the 4 to 6 million figure seems to be such an outrageously outof-bounds
and unexpected estimate, that's the sort of information that, if someone were to write
an official report on the state of online voting, they would want to examine by looking up the
research methodology of that particular project (perhaps by contacting the authors of the research
project) to determine how those figures were deduced.
References:
Bushell, Sue. (2003). Where to Now for E-Voting? Retrieved Oct. 24, 2003 from
http://www.cio.com.au/
index.php?id=405941257&eid=-601
from U6D2 from Jan concepts related to data collection and analysis
Descriptive observational variable
inferential observational variables
evaluative observational variables
criterior related observer reliability
intra-observer reliability
inter-observer reliability
observer drift
reliability decay