Charges of election Fraud go mainstream. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann repeated rumors that something was strange about the votes in Florida and Ohio. I'm not going to examine the charges. That as been done here, here, here, and here. What I'm goin to write about instead s why I dismissed these charges out of hand.

First, all of the charges are one-sided. Are we to believe that wdespread voter fraud exists but that it is limited to Republicans? After Democrats nationwide vowed to do whatever it takes to defeat Bush? If someone came forward and said, 'I can't say who did it but I know a Democrat who has stuffed the ballot box so he knows what to look for.'

Even better would be for the Democrats to produce a Republican who either had done it or knew someone who did.

Without that all we have are projections based on party registration. I suspect that this has the same problem as the exit polls - people in these rural counties are registering as Democrats because it is expected of them but, in the privacy of the voting booth, they vote their heart.

That's why we have secret ballots. To let you vote based on your wn beliefs instead of someone else's.

As for Ohio, I know something about Ohio voting procedures. I just got a refresher a week ago when I voted.

In Ohio you give your name and address to the poll takers. They find it in their book. You sign the book next to a copy of your signature and you are given a voter authorization card. This is taken by the person operating the voting machines. I don't see anyway around this without collusion by multiple people.

According to the reports, 93,000 more people voted in Cuyahoga county than are registered. Given the procedures I outlined above, it would be really tough for this to happen.

But if it did happen, why did Kerry get 2/3s of the vote? Were the Democrats the ones doin the fixing?

And how many voting machines were required?

I will bet that the registration figures were old. Nearly 1,000,000 new voters registered in Ohio. It sounds about right for Ohio's most populous county to get 10% of the new voters.

Democrats act as though voter fraud was something that never existed before 2000 and that electronic voting machine were invented for no other reason than to throw the election.

In Ohio, at least, voter fraud would be difficult. Every county board of elections has, by law, equal number Democrat and Republican members. Ken Blackwell, the Secretary of State, is Republlican so, also by law, the people between Blackwell and the counties are all Democrat. If someone tries something, someone close at hand will notice it.

Bottom line, Kerry lost, the exit polls were wrong, and rural Florida voters are fairly conservative.