Math prof. comments on Fla. recounts

While the battle for the presidency rages on, Penn professors in departments ranging from English to Electrical Engineering have introduced the topic into class discussion. And Mathematics Department Chairman Dennis DeTurck is going a step further, releasing this week a statistical analysis of the ongoing ballot-counting process. And according to his findings, maximum accuracy can be obtained by counting the Florida ballots roughly 16 times, with each of the results then being averaged. DeTurck's analysis stems from the slim margin between the two candidates, just 930 votes according to the last official count. The idea for the study came to DeTurck through teaching his Mathematics 170 course, "Ideas in Mathematics." "As part of the class, we were talking about issues exactly like this one. How do you count 6 million votes?" DeTurck said. "And how do you measure something with... precision?" In fact, DeTurck said he was "surprised that no one else seems to have done this sort of computation." "In the end, there are a lot of statistical ways to approach the issue," he said, adding that statistical accuracy can only be obtained through numerous recounts. "You have to [count the ballots] a lot of times," he said. "You can't just do it once, but over and over again." According to DeTurck, his suggested 16 recounts could provide 95 percent certainty of the results, but he admitted that "no one would agree," to counting the ballots that many times. He also noted that most ballots would probably not stand up to the kind of wear and tear that would come with numerous recounts. The issue of manual recounts -- which are considered essential if Gore is to have any chance of winning the election -- went before the Supreme Court of Florida on Monday. Last night, the Court ruled that manual recounts may continue in Florida until Sunday or Monday, when state officials must finally certify the result of the November 7 presidential election. The manual recount in Florida is just one of many issues that DeTurck says will "make the country rethink the way votes are cast and recounted." He believes the solution to these problems lies in electronics, with computers aiding in the process "without opening it up to tampering." "A computer can come back and tell you who you voted for, and ask you if you're sure you voted correctly, the same way Microsoft Word asks you if you're sure you want to close a document." he said. He added that the Internet would not even need to enter into the process. In addition, he said, the use of computers would not be "an expensive proposition." "This election has gone to show us we should invest in something like that," DeTurck said.