How many people are needed to steal an election?

[FerrisBueller86]

Reports of suspicious irregularities (like counties with more votes for Bush than total number of voters) have been strengthening the case that there was hanky-panky going on. If there really was hanky-panky at work (even if Bush would have won without it), this needs to be exposed.

If the Bush campaign really did steal the election, how many people would be in on the secret?

I'm trying to imagine myself as George W. Bush or Karl Rove. If I wanted to steal an election, I'd want it to involve as FEW people as possible. The more people you try to recruit, the greater the risk that someone will go public or play along and then ensnare you. The more people you have in on the conspiracy, the more likely it is one of them will either turn against you or (perhaps more likely) let a minor thing slip and thus risk exposing the scheme. And the more time passes, the greater the risk that SOME little thing will eventually slip out. Most of the people in the Bush-Cheney campaign would be oblivious. If they knew that they had to cheat in order to win, it might lower the morale of a few people. It's even conceivable that Bush knows nothing. If I were Rove and were out to steal the election for Bush, I'd prefer that he NOT know and just let him falsely think he has a mandate.

I don't know much about election procedures. But given the suspect sources of the electronic voting machines, I'm guessing that the vote could be stolen by just 10 people. Perhaps 3 people at Diebold, Karl Rove, the secretary of state of Ohio, the secretary of state of Florida, and the secretary of states in a few other states.

Given the reports of irregularities in North Carolina and the talk about "mandates", I'm now thinking that there might have been EVEN MORE hanky-panky in the non-battleground states, where there would have been less scrutiny. I think this might be especially true for the solid Bush states. Bush winning by a wider than expected margin in a state already expected to go solidly for Bush wouldn't arouse much suspicion (since there would be ZERO chance of changing the results), but it would pad the popular vote total and create a false mandate.

What do you think?