Is there statistical evidence of fraud in the Russian election data?

March 5th, 2012 by Ben Goldacre in bad science, data, structured data | 16 Comments »

James Ball sent me the data for the Russian election vote counts this morning and asked me to test whether it deviates from Benford’s law, a test that can give a hint at whether numbers are the product of fraud. Posted below is my analysis, and also a check for last digit preference, which is another method for spotting sneakiness. Read the rest of this entry »