Fact: We can no longer trust our electoral process

i am not a conspiracy theorist by nature but i suspect that the "malfeasance," as krugman gingerly puts it, has been with us for long before the 2000 elections... what's different is that it's now becoming visible... well, at least visible for SOME, subtracting the masses who either don't pay attention or who don't care or who, in all fairness, are so damn busy working and trying to make ends meet they don't have time to do anything about it...

By running for the U.S. Senate, Katherine Harris, Florida's former secretary of state, has stirred up some ugly memories. And that's a good thing, because those memories remain relevant. There was at least as much electoral malfeasance in 2004 as there was in 2000, even if it didn't change the outcome. And the next election may be worse.

In his recent book "Steal This Vote" - a very judicious work, despite its title - Andrew Gumbel, a U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, provides the best overview I've seen of the 2000 Florida vote. And he documents the simple truth: "Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election."

Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida's ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore. This was true despite a host of efforts by state and local officials to suppress likely Gore votes, most notably Ms. Harris's "felon purge," which disenfranchised large numbers of valid voters.

But few Americans have heard these facts.

of course, few have heard these facts... it's not in the interests of the media or the media's super-rich owners to promulgate these facts... that might require changes to the status quo which, as we know, is sacred no matter which party is in power...

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