Mannerisms

The whole point of democracy is that the voters trust the voting process. If they don't, the whole thing becomes a joke.

But there were several stories which emerged in the3 course of the fortnight which shows how paranoid Americans are about the process.

First came a story that voting machines automatically recorded a vote for McCain no matter who you voted for.

Then came a story, that early votes - votes cast before election day which may count for a third of total votes - will not be counted. Early voters were made to wait three or four hours in some parts of Florida for lack of enough voting stations.

Thirdly came a fear that 'provisional ballot papers' - ballot papers issued to people who do not have the requisite ID but may be eligible to vote  - could be invalidated by legal challenges.

Then there've been stories about people getting ballot forms with their name miss-spelt which could make them ineligible to vote.

In a country so keen to spread democracy it seems remiss of the Americans not to ensure that their voting process is immaculate.

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