Democracy now? My stomach tells me, "No."

I dunno, I'm feeling both sad and queasy about last week's election. Was it rigged -- were there enough subtle irregularities to tilt the critical precincts to Bush? The few people I talk to on any regular basis tell me to let go of the conspiracy theory stuff, but I can't help but wonder -- and feel appalled, really -- when reading stuff about "vote spoilage" and malfunctioning machines. The difference between the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections? The GOP did a much cleaner, more comprehensive job of ensuring that the votes actually counted favored Bush. Computers don't leave hanging chads, they just eat votes for the "wrong" guy and leave no pesky paper trail. And they only record votes from "approved" voters, that is, those not purged from registration lists for minority-targeting reasons or whose registrations weren't somehow lost or corrupted.

-Kerry Won. Greg Palast, Tompaine.com -- Vote "spoilage" overwhelmingly works against Democratic and, hardly by chance, minority voters, including blacks in Ohio and Florida and Hispanics in New Mexico. These are real votes that are cast but not counted, either because the machines "malfunction" or the vote records are deemed "unreadable." Again, most "spoiled" and thus discarded, uncounted votes come from precincts with heavy concentrations of ethnic minorities, according to Harvard University researchers. We're not talking fringe here.

-Voters Unite lists a slew of reported voting machine problems... 271 reports to date. Some of the more egregious errors include the following:
--An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said (CNN story)
--A software glitch in Craven Cty., No. Carolina, gave Bush 11,283 extra votes (New Bern Sun Journal, which also reports on election difficulties in other NC counties, "including nearby Carteret, where 4,530 early votes were irretrievably lost.")
--Voters in Florida and other states had many problems with electronic voting; many errors favored Bush (ABC TV affiliate)

-Global elections monitors find faults with U.S. elections(Int'l Herald Tribune)

-Did Kerry Concede Too Soon? Bob Fitrakis, The Free Press

-Was the Ohio Election Honest and Fair? Institute for Public Accuracy

-Worse Than 2000: Tuesday's Electoral Disaster, William Rivers Pitt,
Truthout

-None Dare Call it Voter Suppression and Fraud, Bob Fitrakis, Free Press

-see more and updated items at http://www.blackboxvoting.com/

Okay, you know what? Now I'm really pissed off.