The Dog Ate the Ballots

The election margin between the candidates is less than one percent or about 257,000 votes. There is a demand for a recount. There are accusations of millions of votes being "lost" and "shaved."

Is this Florida in 2000, or Ohio in 2004? No, it is Mexico.... now.

And the situation is tense.

The supposed losing presidential candidate of the July 2 election in Mexico, Lopez Obrador, has demanded a ballot-by-ballot recount. The supposed winner, Felipe Calderon, heir to President Vicente Fox's administrative agenda, is confident the vote totals will hold up.

In Mexico, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) conducts the recount. Obrador's campaign alleges that 3 million of the more than 40 million votes cast were lost by the IFE. The institute's head, Luis Carlos Ugalde, makes the excuse "that 3 million votes were not counted because of problems such as duplicate ballots." Maybe Ugalde's dog ate the ballots....

In 2004, the Fox administration tried to eliminate Obrador's presidential candidacy by attempting to impeach him. Obrador called on tens of thousands of supporters to protest, fought off the impeachment and became the front-runner in opinion polls.

Will "Obrador unleash the fury of the streets" again, and the fledgling Mexican democracy demand the fair elections that are becoming a fading memory in the U.S.?

Obador's supporters are suspicious of the IFE, and impassioned..... "If it's necessary, we'll revolt" .... says a handwritten sign.

Orbador represents hope to Mexico's poor with his FDR-type of "New Deal" agenda. He wants to stem the flood of migration to the U.S.

Under Fox, Mexico has dutifully followed the U.S. scripted free trade pacts that have brought Mexico a financial crisis, small farmers to the brink of ruin, caused a national lurch leftward and encouraged illegal migration to the U.S. It has become obvious, "The much ballyhooed free trade pact for the Americas is dead in the water." Globalization isn't working.

Muddied elections, secretive North American Union agenda, globalization.... Presidents Fox and Bush, it's time to get off the stage!