There was a huge amount of talk about the potential theft of the 2006 election.

The predictions were that there would be vote flipping with machines, voter disenfranchisement through voter role purges, long lines, inadequate equipment.

Then there were the robocalls, the threats to voters.

Many of the people in the voting integrity advocacy community believe that all these things were going on.

The problem was, the wave of voter rejection of the republican party was so great, it overcame the corruption in Virginia, Montana...

But many of these same activists believe that this wave did not fully do the job. There are some who believe that variours forms of vote corruption and voter disenfranchisement could have stolen Democratic wins from dozens of other races-- congressional, senate and state level-- maybe hundreds.

Could the Democrats have really won 50 seats in congress? Could they have actually really won 52 or 54 seats in the senate?

If Allen and Burns call for recounts-- if they open up the votes to investigations-- it will open a can of worms that the republican party does not want opened.

Both Allen and Burns will, ultimately accept their defeats, because if they don't ,then investigations could show that vote corruption, by Republicans, was rampant.

There's a presidential election coming in two years-- another round of 33 senate campaigns, and another complete turnover of the house. If it is proved that the Republicans used illegal vote influencing strategies, they will be tarred even worse. If they get the Dems to leave the voting system alone, they'll have the electronic machines, the voting machine company managed voter rolls intact, ready for the real move for the 2008 presidency.

The democrats are euphoric now, thrilled with the wins they achieved. The fact is, it could have and should have been bigger. They must add vote corruption to the long list of investigations that must be pursued.

Bottom line, there is no safe, trustworthy, reliable electronic voting system. The US deserves the best, most trustworthy and reliable voting system in the world. It's not electronic. It's paper. Period. We need to throw out all the machines.

Meanwhile, don't worry about Allen or Burns. They're not going to call for recounts. The Democrats are the ones who should be calling for recounts.