Chance (Spring 2004) presented data from a recent election held to determine the board of directors of a local community. There were 27 candidates for the board, and each of 5,553 voters was allowed to choose 6 candidates. The claim was that "a fixed vote with fixed percentages (was) assigned to each and every candidate making it impossible to participate in an honest election." Votes were tallied in six time periods: after 600 total votes were in, after 1,200, after 2,444, after 3,444, after 4,444, and after 5,553 votes. The data for three of the candidates (Smith, Coppin, and Montes) are shown in the following table. A residential organization believes that "there was nothing random about the count and tallies each time period and specific unnatural or rigged percentages were being assigned to each and every candidate." Give your opinion. Is the probability of a candidate receiving votes independent of the time period? If so, does this imply a rigged election?

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Time Period 2 3 4 5 Votes for 208 208 4 392 351 410 55 51 19 8 88 104 Montes 133 117 255211 186 227 Total Votes 600 600 1.244 1,000 1,000 1,109 Smith Votes for Coppin Votes for