Dr. Niskanen would testify concerning the effect on the state‐wide results on the November 7, 2000 Presidential election in Florida of hand counts only in selective counties. Dr. Niskanen is an economist and the chairman of the Cato Institute, a leading Washington policy institute. His undergraduate degree is from Harvard University and his doctoral degree is from the University of Chicago. One of his professional skills is statistical analysis, and the focus of much of his research is the economic analysis of politics. He was the author, for example, of one of the first studies of the economic and fiscal effects on popular vote for the President and of a recent study of the effects of the Perot vote on the balance of the votes for the major party candidates for President in 1992 and 1996. He has been a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles and has been the president of two professional associations. Biographical data for Dr. Niskanen is attached hereto.
Proffer of Dr. William A. Niskanen
This is the proffer submitted to Leon County Circuit Court Judge N. Sanders Sauls by the Bush legal team on behalf of Cato Chairman William A. Niskanen. Niskanen was on hand in Florida to offer oral testimony concerning how hand recounts in selective Democratic counties would statistically bias statewide results in favor of Al Gore.
