Dave "Doctor" Gonzo

• one man decisively wins the popular vote -- and therefore the mandate to lead -- and another man wins the electoral vote.

• our nation is saddled with a system for selecting a president that made sense in the late 18th century for a geographically massive nation in which news would take weeks to travel -- but makes no sense in the age of instantaneous communication.

• there is no consistent national standard for ballots and voter registration.

• backroom scheming and machinations in one closely contested state can throw the election one way or the other, against or (to be fair) for the will of the majority in that state and in the nation.

• antiquated voting equipment with a record of malfunctioning and failing to record votes even when used according to instructions are still in use -- especially in less affluent areas.

• the counting equipment is also notoriously untrustworthy, and the counts, the recounts, and the re-recounts that you hear some politicos adopting as their mantra are simply not accurate.

• state laws and timetables are used to quash accurate ballot totals and disenfranchise thousands of voters.

• politicians active in federal election campaigns recuse themselves after the election has taken place (as Jeb Bush did) -- or refuse to recuse themselves at all and act to legitimize a questionable outcome (as was the case for the arrogant and venal Katherine Harris, future Ambassador to Chad).

• ultra-right-wing operatives, some aligned with hatemongering web sites, are allowed to tamper with absentee ballot applications.

• hard-right politicians scheme to give some kind of "special" status to overseas military voters even when those voters fail to honor the rule of law -- or break it by submitting fraudulent applications or ballots. As Orwell wrote in Animal Farm, "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others."

• absentee voters get away with voting twice in different states or counties.

• you are intimidated or even chased away from your voting place by police roadblocks and religious or party activists engaged in threatening electioneering.

• the ballot is confusing and difficult to use -- even if you hold a Ph.D.

• election officials snap at you to "hurry up" because there's a "time limit" in the booth.

• a politically motivated judge stops an accurate hand count.

• the highest court in the land runs out the clock -- and perverts the meaning of "equal protection" to deprive voters of just that constitutional guarantee.

• two members of that court have a conflict of interest in that immediate family members are working for plaintiff.

Is that grounds for impeachment, one has to ask? But I digress ...

At the end of the twentieth century, in the most contested and interesting election in modern history, the only outcome that mattered is that America learned the hard, ugly truth about the so-called "right to vote."

You're no better off than a peasant in a banana republic -- your vote does not count.

But look at the bright side.

Since your vote doesn't count, how legitimate will Little George's presence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue really be?

If your vote doesn't count, then he isn't your president.

Some politicians are saying that it's "time to heal." The Doc hears it as "time to heel" -- like a dog.

Forget about that -- your vote doesn't count, but your voice still does.

Maybe it's time you let your legislators at the federal and state level know how you feel.

'Nuff said.

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