In the 2006 general election, according to unofficial results posted on the website of Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, there were 4,177,498 ballots cast in the State of Ohio. Of these, only 3,831,716, or 91.72%, contained a vote for Governor, and only 3,826,829, or 91.61%, contained a vote for United States Senate. These numbers created the appearance of undervote (or overvote) rates of 8.28% and 8.39%, respectively, in the two most hotly contested statewide races on the ballot. When the unofficial election results are examined county by county, there was a strikingly abnormal distribution of undervotes. I chose the United States Senate race to examine in detail because there were only two candidates on the ballot (and one write-in candidate), which makes the mathematical analysis simpler than for the Governor's race, in which there were four candidates on the ballot (and two write-in candidates).

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