To steal a Presidential election in the United States, the vote has to be damn close to begin with. And then maybe, maybe you can steal it. But fake a healthy margin? Like a 10% margin? No dice. The exit polling would be enough to get you caned. And the state-by-state patchwork of election laws mean that you couldn't undo a national landslide without tipping your hand. The best you can do is steal a swing state or two.

To steal an election in Iran, all you have to do is cut off phone and text messaging service and anything else that might get the word out that you stole the election.

But all of this depends on the existence of a fourth estate that actually has the resources to verify anything. A patchwork of bloggers will not cut it alone. And journalism is going through a real rough patch in the US.

Makes me want to subscribe to a daily newspaper again. Even if the bastards seem incapable of delivering them before it's time to leave for work.

Tags: elections, iran, politics, united states