The issue of what happened in 2004 is not an academic one. For the second election in a row, the president of the United States was selected not by the uncontested will of the people but under a cloud of dirty tricks. Given the scope of the GOP machinations, we simply cannot be certain that the right man now occupies the Oval Office -- which means, in effect, that we have been deprived of our faith in democracy itself.

American history is littered with vote fraud -- but rather than learning from our shameful past and cleaning up the system, we have allowed the problem to grow even worse. If the last two elections have taught us anything, it is this: The single greatest threat to our democracy is the insecurity of our voting system. If people lose faith that their votes are accurately and faithfully recorded, they will abandon the ballot box. Nothing less is at stake here than the entire idea of a government by the people.

Voting, as Thomas Paine said, ''is the right upon which all other rights depend.'' Unless we ensure that right, everything else we hold dear is in jeopardy.

This article is truly disturbing. I clearly remember the allegations of voter manipulation and fraud in Ohio, but I had no idea of the scale or how strong the case was. The fact that Rolling Stone has been the only outlet to publish an examination of this issue in this much detail is even more disturbing. We require the media, as the 4th estate, to provide a check against government impropriety. The freedoms the press, and the rest of the public, enjoys does not come without responsibility. If there is in fact voter fraud persisting on the scale this article alleges, the major media outlets have not honored the responsibility they have to the American public.

On one level, I concur with Decius's opinion that this type of analysis would best be presented in a non-partisan academic journal, rather than a music magazine. That being said, I wonder why this has not occurred already. In no uncertain terms, this article is a challenge to the rest of the mediasphere to further investigate the issue. Much to Kennedy's credit, he provided a reference for every factoid he used, totaling a whooping two-hundred-and-eight footnotes. There is no challenge here figuring out where he got his information from, in order to challenge or validate the allegations present.

This challenge should be answered. Our constitutional values demand it. At this point, the goal should not be to overturn the presidency, but to insure that all votes are counted in future elections. This is critical in order for our democracy to work.

Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen?