They are not going to steal the vote again. Here is how I convince myself of that:

[Jackpine Radical]

The Obama people have been on top of everything. Did you know that they made up fake anti-Obama Rezko and Wright ads and showed them to focus groups and tested their responses in order to determine the best way to counter the smears?

Do you remember how they scuttled that Corsi book "Obama Nation" before it got any traction at all?

Do you know how effective they are at countering email libel, internet rumors, etc?

Well, the possibility of vote theft is an obvious one; we all know it has been done in previous elections. Can you seriously imagine that the Obama people, with all the strategic acuity they have displayed at every turn along the way so far, have not entered the possibility of vote theft into their calculations? And that, having thought about this likelihood, they have not come up with a means of defeating it?

I don't know what the means is. I don't have numbers on the potential size of the problem. But it is unfathomable to me that they would not be thus informed, and that they would not have found effective ways to neutralize it.

I remind myself f this chain of logic every night at bedtime when the heebie-jeebies come knocking.

[scheming daemons]

1. Here's how I convince myself of it: 2006

You think they WANTED a Democratically controlled congress?

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I think they stole some in that election;

just not enough.

Had it been a fair election, I think the dems would have ended up with about 55 in the Senate.

[ncgrits]

2. You know. . . . that sure rings true! I hope you're right because I still don't trust those bastards

and Hack the Vote was on again the other night.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Yes, exactly. Hack the Vote was on.

That means that they will have a much harder time of pulling it off this time. Everybody knows, everybody is ready to be much more receptive to the significance of funny statistics.

They can't steal it without generating statistical anomolies.

Ultimately, the best defense against election fraud is exit polling. In psychological test theory, the exit polls would be the external validator of the electoral process.

[BeFree]

5. Wanna know what I think?

I think the Obama people are working toward a landslide to beat the machines.

To expose the machines would be political suicide so thats out.

Afterwards, if stolen, they will ask the people to rise up and set things right while working with folks attempting to get to the bottom of the situation, which we will.

I'm counting on a landslide.

[iceman66]

6. What if they tried to steal it and got CAUGHT?

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. I dream of that. Of course, their voters will cry foul.... on us for "lying."

[BeFree]

8. If caught?

It would be the end of the machines. And that has to be a great concern for them. And they will get caught -- have been caught. The era will end sooner or later.

They may just take a few senate and house seats and bide their time 'til 2010, hoping we anti-machine nuts fade away. But to take away Obama's election? May be too much for them to do if they want to stay in the game.