Application of benford's law in the results of the 2023 presidential elections, second round in ecuador

Granda Sanmartin, Lascano Corrales, Lucina Cabezas and Janeta Tenelema

Health Leadership and Quality of Life, 2024, vol. 3, .477

Abstract: Benford's Law is a statistical tool used to analyze the distribution of digits in a dataset. This law posits that, in many cases, the first digit of a number is not random but follows a specific distribution, with the digit 1 being the most common, followed by 2, 3, and so on. This article analyzed the application of Benford's Law, through the distribution of the first digits of numbers across various datasets, to the results of the 2023 presidential elections, second round, in Ecuador. The objective was to detect potential anomalies or manipulations in the vote count. The authors used the official data published by the National Electoral Council of Ecuador and compared it with the expected values according to Benford's Law. The results showed that most provinces complied with Benford's Law, with some exceptions that could be attributed to random factors or irregularities. The authors conclude that Benford's Law is a useful, though not definitive, tool for assessing the integrity of electoral processes

Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dbk:health:v:3:y:2024:i::p:.477:id:.477

DOI: 10.56294/hl2024.477

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