Democracy's Dirty Secret

The Washington Post reports Calderón Wins Mexico Presidential Election.

With all votes now counted, Calderón has topped Andres Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, by half a percentage point, or about 200,000 votes. The final count shows Calderón with 35.88 percent and López Obrador with 35.31.

In Mexico, votes are counted locally and then sealed in boxes which are sent to central counting centers, only boxes with evendence of tampering are opened and counted individually...

This has enraged López Obrador and his supporters. They want a vote-by-vote count of every packet. But Luis Carlos Ugalde, head of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute, said Wednesday that López Obrador's request is illegal and that opening all the packets would amount to a violation of Mexican law that would annul the results of not only the presidential race, but also thousands of other races, including contests for Mexico's legislature and a host of governships.


PAN, Calderon's party, has been stealing elections through this process for decades. There have been instances where boxes from areas dominated by the PRI have been counted as 90% for PAN. It isn't ironic that PAN doesn't want the packets opened: the law favors the ruling party that has control over the vote-counting process.

I don't think there is a better system for choosing our leaders than by open elections. However, democracy is such a fragile thing, so easily corrupted, it must be gaurded like a small child in a busy marketplace.

It is a hard thing to accept that elections are stolen all of the time. In the United States, especially in the early days, voter fraud has been a way of life. Clearly it is improving, but in tight elections, the better cheater just might win.

In this case, PAN once again proved themselves to be the better cheaters.