Progressives must act quickly to protect the integrity of the vote in the 2006 Congressional elections.

It's too late now to ensure nationally that the electronic voting machines themselves will be safe from GOP fraud.

A simple solution:

A match between exit polls and the actual vote results is the gold standard against which the honesty of an election is judged.

Democrats should put together -- however many millions it costs -- over-sampled, bulletproof, even publicly monitored exit polls for every single district where there's even a remote chance of a Democrat winning.

This would hopefully give the Republicans pause before they try to effectuate the widespread electronic voting fraud they've perpetrated in the past.

In the event this doesn't deter the right-wing, the exit polls would provide a hook upon which to base a solid claim of fraud in any district where the election "results" don't match the exit polls.

If, of course, the Democrats find the cojones to follow through.

Call your Democratic representatives and Senators, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as well.

Congress's number is 202-224-3121. They can tell you who your representatives are if you're not sure.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's number is 202-863-1500, email dccc@dccc.org.

If we don't insure an honest vote, the right-wing will win the 2006 elections and increase their power, no matter what the polls say now about George Bush's low popularity, and no matter how many people in November 2006 in reality do cast their votes against Republicans.