corrente

Down in that embryonic "Cuba-style dictatorship," Venezuela, allegations of vote fraud can be answered definitively because...

The referendum was carried out on touch-screen voting machines, which produced a paper receipt of each vote, much like an ATM. Voters then deposited the receipts into a ballot box. Amid charges that the electronic machines were rigged, the monitors will be checking the results from the machines against the paper ballots to make sure there are no major discrepancies. The paper ballots will be checked at election offices while votes recorded in the machines will be examined at an army base.
(via The Globe and Mail)

Meanwhile, down in Florida,

Almost all the electronic records from the first widespread use of touch-screen voting in Miami-Dade County have been lost, stoking concerns that the machines are unreliable as the presidential election draws near.

The records disappeared after two computer system crashes last year, county elections officials said, leaving no audit trail for the 2002 gubernatorial primary. A citizens' group uncovered the loss this month after requesting all audit data from that election.

It's now official: "Banana Republicans" is a slur on banana republics.