You would think such a travesty of justice as election tampering would be the preserve of corrupt Sub-Saharan regimes. You wouldn’t think America of all places, the great champion of Western democracy, could stand to see an election, the cornerstone of democracy, surreptitiously manipulated for political gain. But it happened.

November 2000 — that’s when it happened. Florida —that’s where it happened. George Bush’s cronies —they’re who made it happen. Al Gore was beating George Bush in the race to become the US President, but if George Bush won Florida he would steal it. And steal it he did. After the outcome was judged too close to call, the State of Florida ordered a manual recount in key counties. As the votes were being recounted, George Bush’s margin diminished and diminished. Al Gore was going to win! But then Bush’s team of lawyers stepped in and took a case to the predominately-Republican US Supreme Court, who ordered the recount to cease. The rest, as they say, is history.

I don’t know the full story of what happened on the day of election, or on the days that immediately followed, but I’ve no doubt the wrong man was elected to the Oval Office. Everyone knows about the ballots designed to confuse, the ones that lead thousands to unwittingly vote for someone other than Al Gore. But not everyone knows that, before the election, the names of tens of thousands of alleged felons, half of them black, were illegally struck off the voting roll. So much for the “Land of Opportunity”.