Why didn't Count Dickula think of this while there was still time?

Constitutional amendment could allow Vladimir Putin to stay in power for decades

MOSCOW -- As if to counter the mood of democratic change in the United States, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday launched a constitutional amendment that would allow him and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to remain the legal leaders of Russia, with little chance for challenge, through the next two decades.

The change, introduced in the State Duma, raises the presidential term of office to six years from four, beginning with the next president. It would allow Mr. Putin, who stepped down from the presidency this year after he reached the constitutional two-consecutive-term limit, to run again in 2012 or 2016 for two more terms totalling 12 years. Officials close to Mr. Putin say he will likely do so.

That change, along with other proposals that would make it extremely difficult for political parties other than Mr. Putin's United Russia to put up top-level candidates in elections, virtually guarantees the reign of Mr. Putin - widely considered to be the true leader behind Mr. Medvedev's presidency - either as prime minister or president for a period that could last as long as 22 more years.

Spoiler alert: McCain wins

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

How to Suck at Democracy (cont'd)

Long waits continue to mar early voting; Video captures machine flipping votes in W.Virginia; Florida no-match list grows to 12,165 voters; Investigation finds thousands wrongly denied right to register in Houston; Bogus flier in VA tells Democrats wrong date for elections...
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on perfecting the art of keeping people who have been foreclosed on and other undesirables away from the voting booth (cont'd)

Encouraging signs everywhere... but nobody has had the balls to establish a poll tax?

* In Colorado and New Mexico there are not enough voting booths or machines for Election Day.
* Students in Virginia are receiving probing questionnaires from voting officials falsely implying they don't have the right to vote there.
* In Ohio alone, more than 600,000 newly-registered voters are threatened with purging.
* There are reports of sometimes-illegal mass voter roll purges in Michigan, New Mexico, Florida, Georgia, Colorado and other states. Several states are even purging voter rolls of people who are "Bob" on driver's licenses and "Robert" on voter registration forms.
* Officials in Indiana are avoiding setting up polling places in areas of the state heavily populated by minorities.
* The Republican Party in Michigan planned to challenge the registrations of every voter whose home had been foreclosed on recently.
* ACORN, which has been held out as a bogeyman for voter fraud (though only 26 TOTAL cases of voter fraud were prosecuted nationwide from 2002 - 2005), has bad registration rates below the California Republican Party's and a lawsuit alleging fraud in 2004 was dismissed by a judge for lack of merit.
* And, of course, there are ongoing worries across the country about electronic voting machines.

at least they didn't include his middle name

TROY, NY - Oops!

Officials at an upstate elections board were red-faced yesterday after mailing hundreds of absentee ballots offering "Barack Osama" as the Democratic choice for president.

The Rensselaer County Board of Elections recalled 300 ballots that erroneously featured the al Qaeda leader's name.

"The error was not deliberate, and the Board of Elections is continuing to fairly manage the upcoming general election in a bipartisan and cooperative manner," Republican Larry Bugbee and Democratic Edward McDonough said.

Bugbee said the ballot had slipped through despite three different proofreaders, according to the Albany Times Union.

UNBELIEVABLY SHOCKING!!!

Purging of the Voting rolls has begun! Blocking Voters Appear Illegal

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what's a little election-rigging if it means we got to keep the guys who were protecting our liberties?

Florida in 2000 you know all about. But did you ever seriously focus on Ohio 2004?
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so did people suddenly grow brains practically overnight or is McCranky just really that bad?

In my inbox from Nov. 4, 2004:

"A post-election poll indicates most of those surveyed are hopeful the country will be drawn together during President Bush's second term... They also expect Bush to put aside partisan agendas and lead in a bipartisan way, according to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. Just over half -- 51 percent -- said they were pleased with the outcome of the election; 38 percent said they were upset."

Will, Zweibel, and K-Mad: triplets separated at birth?

George Will: A word describes most of the people who will vote only if a ballot is shoved through their mail slot: "slothful." What kind of people will not bestir themselves to exercise their franchise if doing so requires them to get off their couches and visit neighborhood polling places? People who are barely interested, and hence probably are barely informed.

T. Herman Zweibel: I am told that our new War of the White House section will contain the vetted and censored life stories of each candidate; white-washed and simplified versions of their heinous plans to drain the life and wealth of each and every tax-payer; a schedule denoting the appearances of every aspirant, so that one may go and be covered in unspeakable fulminating lies in person instead of hearing them over the crystal-set. I should God damned well hope that there will also be prettily-colored pictures, or else the average American citizen will not be able to keep his eye on it for more than a few heart-beats, and it would be better yet if there were accompanying photos of ample heaving bosoms.

2000: "Hanging chad." 2004: "Diebold."

A good prediction for 2008 might be: "Faithless elector."

"Mugabe pledges to fight 'lackeys'" (Fung?)

Sounds like we can count on a fair election:

President Robert Mugabe has vowed that the main opposition party will never lead Zimbabwe and said he was prepared to "go to war" for his country.

Hey, isn't dere a corrupt "election" going on in Zimbabwe?

Where's our man-on-the-street reportage???