Why Mexico's Voting Fiasco Should Worry Us

First, understand that ChoicePoint, a big giver to Mr. Bush and company and involved in many nasty issues here in the U.S. including questionable voting results, is a central player in Mexico's elections.

Second, check out the snippet from The Times below and appreciate a couple of salient points:

• NOW they're saying the conservative candidate is in the lead
• NOTE that they refer to the non-conservative candidate as a "leftist" - other news services call him a "serious radical left-wing idealogue" or "radical leftist" or "left-leaning extremist". Uh, folks? The conservative candidate is pretty O-U-T there so why is only his opponent painted with such an incendiary brush? Let me hazard a guess (snort).
• I really doubt that the conservative candidate will be the actual choice of the people yet - sadly, because of a rigged election - I am equally sure he will be named the winner (sigh).

For more followup on this "election" (let's call it selection as with Bush in 2000 and 2004 where the winner was chosen ahead of time and the machines fixed to return the required results), visit Anything They Say, which featured this today:

As has already been discussed here, the ChoicePoint elections in Mexico have exhibited some interesting similarities with those of Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004. Add now to the reported long lines, shortage of ballots, and all manner of "bungling," which seemed to more affect constituencies supportive of the lefitst Obrador, are reports that exit polls are divergent from the vote count, complete with charges that some 3 million ballots are missing.

One of Obrador's campaign workers, Luis Mandoke, must have been feeling like all those Kerry workers in 2004 when he said,

It was unbelievable. We were wondering, 'What happened to our lead?'

And here's from today's New York Times:

MEXICO CITY, July 5 — Mexico endured a new cycle of suspense on Wednesday as the authorities tabulated their final official count of votes from Sunday's disputed presidential election, in which preliminary results separated the candidates by less than one percent.

Supporters of Andrés Manuel López Obrador chanted outside an office where votes were being counted Wednesday in Mexico City.

With tallies taken from about 93 percent of the polling places, the electoral authorities reported that the count had tilted toward the leftist candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had 36 percent of the vote, while the conservative candidate, Felipe Calderón, had 35 percent.

But with a race this close, elections officials said they would not announce a winner until all the tally sheets had been counted. As the night wore on, Mr. López Obrador's lead steadily narrowed as tallies arrived from the northwestern states that voted heavily in favor of Mr. Calderón. Even some of Mr. Lopez Obrador's advisers acknowledged privately that they were not confident their candidate's lead would hold.

The final tally, usually little more than a formality, turned into another cliffhanger of a moment in the most competitive presidential race in Mexican history. As the count ticked along on newspaper Web sites into the night, the president of the electoral institute said he would announce the final results as soon as he had them, no matter the hour.

Leaders of the Calderón campaign were huddled at their party headquarters. Officials from Mr. López Obrador's campaign remained at the electoral institute, making clear they would not recognize the results until there was a vote-by-vote recount.