I HAVE long been astonished and dismayed at how carelessly we, the oldest continuous democracy in the world, treat elections. We spent months and millions preparing for them but when it comes time to actually count the vote, we turn away and yawn.

Vote’s in; game over.

On the contrary, it may just be starting. There is considerable evidence that at least three of the past 12 national elections were frauds. (Remember I said “evidence,” not proof.)

The first of these was 1960 when John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon by a razor-thin margin. In both Illinois and Texas, states carried by Kennedy, there seemed to be questionable goings on — broken seals on ballot boxes, oddly lopsided results in certain counties — that suggested ballot stuffing in favor of Kennedy. The results cried out for a recount. There was none.

Why didn’t Nixon, a fierce campaigner, call for one? He said later, much later, that he was afraid that if he protested too much and still lost he would be labeled a “sore loser” and his political career ruined. (Ha!)

AS A long-time Nixon hater, I was happy with his decision whatever the reason and not disturbed by the charges of fraud. All’s fair in love and politics, I thought. Boy, was I wrong.

The full extent of my mistake became apparent to me some 40 years later when the Republicans — having embraced the rancid election strategy of South Carolina and Lee Atwater — strong-armed the vote in Florida and, with the collusion of the Supreme Court, stole the election from Al Gore in favor of George Bush.

Sour grapes, you say? Perhaps, but I remember ballots in Democratic precincts looking like MENSA exams, then being thrown out when improperly marked.

I remember a gang of congressional staff members, all Republican, coming down to Florida to physically stop election workers from conducting a recount.

I remember the United States Supreme Court stopping the recount in a decision so nonsensical that it also said the ruling should never be used as a precedent.

DOES THAT pass the smell test for you? If it does, you should see a doctor. You may have a cold.

The 2004 election was even worse. It was the year of the electronic voting machine. This marvel not only allowed you to vote by tapping a video screen, it counted your vote.

Or did it? The problem was it produced no paper trail; there was no way of checking whether your vote had been properly recorded. And, as computer experts have testified to Congress, it is entirely possible, easy even, to program the machines so that they produce a desired result, regardless of how people actually voted.

The scenario reminds one of the craps game in “Guys and Dolls,” when Big Julie from Chicago, produces his own set of dice and demands his fellow players use them.

“These dice ain’t got no spots on them,” one of the players complains.

“That’s OK,” says Big Julie. “I got ‘em memorized.”

In Ohio in 2004, the machines used were manufactured and programmed by a company owned by the chairman of the “Bush for President” committee in Ohio.

REMEMBER HOW the exit polls in Ohio showed Kerry beating Bush? When the vote count came in, giving Bush the election, the “left-wing media commentators” all said, “Oh, I guess our exit polls were wrong.”

Or, perhaps, the polls were accurate and the vote was rigged. We’ll never know.

The so-called ACORN scandal of this year’s election seems pretty weak beer. If you register as Mickey Mouse, for example, you still have to produce a valid identification at the polls if you want to vote. It seems more like a money scam on the part of the people collecting names.

But whatever it is, we really should start taking our elections seriously on Election Day. The ballot is the Lego block with which our democratic society is built.

Without an honest election, we are just a banana republic with Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Don Kaul is a 2-time Pulitzer Prize-losing Washington correspondent who, by his own account, is right more than he’s wrong. dkaul1@earthlink.net

(Distributed by MinutemanMedia.org)

Don Kaul is a 2-time Pulitzer Prize-losing Washington correspondent who, by his own account, is right more than he’s wrong. dkaul1@earthlink.net

(Distributed by MinutemanMedia.org)