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"So what you are saying is that the republicans cheated, but it's okay because we can't prove that they cheated enough to change the results of the election? That is sickening. What happened in Ohio - and across the country, is NOT okay. I don't know if it turned the election or not. I don't even care, to tell you the truth. Disenfranchising people because of incompetence and political corruption is wrong, and we should care. I'm sick and tired of seeing people say "Well, Kerry would have lost anyway, so it doesn't matter". It doesn't matter how many were disenfranchised. It matters that anybody was."
Thank you, Diane, this is exactly right. Farhad Manjoo's article is cynical, dispiriting and depressing. We will never know how many people were prevented or dissuaded from voting, how many votes were "lost" or switched, or whether they were enough to change the outcome in Ohio or elsewhere. 2000 showed us that the likelihood of overturning the results in a Presidential election is extremely remote. The point must be to prevent these things from happening in the future. As long as people like Manjoo keep insisting that it doesn't matter, I fear we never will.
