To Err is Human

Whoever wins there will be allegations of fraud. There will be the genuine feeling that the election was stolen and that, if the Democrats win, the dead voted them in, and if the Republicans win that they owned the voting machines and kept minorities from the polls.

While there will be fraud and dirty tricks, these will not determine the election. Innocent mistakes and glitches play a far greater part in our results than fraud. Already ballot scanning machines have broken in Los Angeles, causing delays and long lines. Ballot design is a huge factor.

Remember Florida in 2000? Of course you do. The whole mess would never have gotten to the Supreme Court had not the infamous "butterfly ballot" innocently misguided my relatives into voting for Pat Buchanan. Had their intent been realized, Gore would have won and there would have been no litigation. And just who designed that evil butterfly ballot? A Democratic operative.

Somewhere around 130 million people will vote in this election. Anytime you try to count up to 130 million, you will make errors. You can recount by hand or machine and if the real number is close enough, you will get different results each time.

We really need to settle down and cool our hot blood. We need to be fon the watch for fraud--but not obsessed by it. There are no perfect elections, the best we can hope for, and work for, is a fair election.