Almost Every Vote Counts

WASHINGTON - Federal poll watchers will be in 22 states Tuesday, safeguarding against fraud or discrimination in election districts marked by tight races, large numbers of minority voters and faulty ballot machines.

Justice Department monitors and observers are being assigned to Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which has been dogged by problems with computerized touch-screen voting machines. They will be in Bergen County, N.J., a must-win prize for both candidates in the state's Senate race. And they will watching more than a dozen counties nationwide where polls are on American Indian reservations and in big cities dominated by black voters.

In all, the Justice Department is sending an estimated 850 poll watchers to 69 cities and counties - what officials on Monday called an unprecedented number, and twice as many during the 2002 congressional midterm elections.

I'm not sure if I should feel good about the Justice Department doing this, or ashamed that they have to.

I'll just let you read this, from the BBC News, on your own. It makes me proud that we are the focal point of election corruption, while we are supposed to be bringing fear-sponsored peace to other parts of the world.It reminds me of a quote from Seinfeld, when Newman and Kramer were playing Risk, and trying to cheat each other. When asked what they were doing, Jerry replied, "It's a game of world domination,being played by two people who can barely run their own lives."
And which two people could I be referring to?

Meanwhile, in Colorado:

These paid political advertisements are provided by the Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative Committee, SAFER Colorado. The group got a referendum on the state ballot legalizing marijuana and ran ads in newspapers Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006 targeting President Bush for allegedly challenging his father to fight while drunk and Cheney for allegedly shooting a friend after drinking.

If you want to check out what's going on around the country, NPR has a nice map showing key races around the country - in the traditional red and blue colors of the season.

All 435 House seats, 33 Senate seats and 36 governorships are at stake in Tuesday's voting, with Democrats needing to pick up 15 House seats and six Senate seats to seize control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994. About 50 contested House races and 10 Senate races are the chief battleground.

So, get out and vote. With any luck, your vote will be counted accurately, instead of the way it usually is.