CALIFORNIA, NORTH CAROLINA, AND ARIZONA

People might argue that Russia and Ukraine are special cases, and they are right if established democracies are the benchmark. A count of ten or even three million fraudulently cast ballots, all going to an incumbent, is inconceivable today in any state we might label a stable functioning democracy. Russia's uniqueness in particular, unless compared to places like Zimbabwe or the Asian republics of the former USSR, is underscored when one reads of the regime's largely impotent political opponents being harassed, arrested, beaten, and simply kept off the ballot by a variety of pseudo-legal maneuvers or maneuvers proclaimed legal by a subservient judiciary. However, elections have not always been wholly free and fair in the United States. We recall the humorous comment by Boss Tweed in the movie Gangs of New York that his minions ignore the uncomfortable fact that they had run out of ballots and to “keep counting!” Although a fictionalized account, its humor lies in the historical truth it contains.