I think it's important to note that it is very unlikely that this election can be "stolen". There are several reasons, but I'll start with the math.

The electoral vote strength margin is massive. I consider strength to mean any electoral votes in states with a greater than 5% margin. Also note that we aren't just taking one or two polls, but a systematic algorithmic measurement of these polls.

Consider the electoral vote strength of this years election (as provided by www.electoral-vote.com ) :

The graph above shows the electoral votes again but omits the "barely" states. The electoral votes of a state only count in this graph if the candidate has a margin of 5% or more over his opponent.

Compare that to the same graph from 2004:


Clearly, this election is not the same as 2004 and 2004 was clearly anyone's game. 2004 was stolen with a single state: Ohio. And it was indeed stolen. Many people involved in stealing that election are being prosecuted or are in jail (the ones that evidence could be gathered on). Voter disenfranchisement was clear and there was a clear reason for it: The Republican controlling the election: Ken Blackwell.

This year, many of the same states that went for Bush are now under Democratic administrations with Democratic secretaries of state who believe in honest and clear elections. Recent federal court decisions have gone in favor of Democrats in Ohio and in Colorado.

Republicans would need to have a conspiracy of epic proportions involving far to many ranking people in order to pull this off. Most signs of election fraud have been sourced to the McCain campaign or the RNC: bogus registration forms, sending out mis-information pieces such as wrong voting dates and locations.

Ultimately, I believe the McCain campaign and the RNC are gearing up for an election challenge, but so far all indicators point to an extremely weak argument based on ACORN registration issues.

Furthermore, the Obama campaign has shown that they are prepared for election fraud. They know what happened in 2000 and 2004 and they are prepared and have been prepared. They know what they are up against.

Is Election Fraud still an issue? Absolutely. Should we continue pushing toward open, transparent and verifiable solutions that eliminate opportunities for election fraud in situations like 2004 and 2000? Absolutely. But I think we should all step back for a minute and see what the realistic chances this election will be stolen. I just don't see it happening this time.