Like many of you, I am entering the 2006 elections in a spirit of highly tempered optimism.  Poll after poll shows that this is going to be a rout of unprecedented scale.  But having already been burned in 2000 and 2004, my confidence in a free and impartial electoral process has been sharply diminished.  Assuming, for argument’s sake, that partisan operatives already have mechanisms in place with which to manipulate the results (can’t imagine where I would get that idea), I think they would be playing with fire not to allow for some Democratic gains.  Otherwise, I think people would start asking too many questions.  However, those gains don’t have to be enough to surrender either house of Congress. 

Yeah, I’m cynical, I know.  But even without a direct counting manipulation, the structural flaws are already in place to drastically affect the outcome of this vote.  According to a recent report from the non-partisan electiononline.org, at least 10 states “have a combustible mix of fledgling voting-machine technology, confusion over voting procedures or recent litigation over election rules -- and close races.”  Add to that the report from Truthout today that a computer “glitch” in the particularly tight Virginia race means that the Democratic candidate’s name will not appear on the ballot.  Yeah, you read that right. 

Well, there is something we can all do about at least some of these problems besides passively hoping for a clean election – we can assume the worst and help gather evidence on election day.  VideoTheVote.org is now registering volunteer videographers to spend November 7^th at your local precinct videotaping the process which will then be spread online.  Yeah, that’s right – long lines, intimidation, missing computers, undermanned polls – all the anecdotal problems of 2004 can now be caught on camera with an army of citizen journalists.  Watch the video and signup!