Was Mexican Election Stolen ?

Lopez Obrador, leftist candidate for president in Mexico, has declared that fraud took place in the election. He is filing the fraud allegations with the electoral court, and is asking that all 41 million votes be recounted. Election officials have said the winner was conservative candidate Felipe Calderon by a margin of 0.58%, or 243,000 votes.

Obrador said the election was "plagued by irregularities" and he was the victim of a rigged computer system. He believes President Vicente Fox conspired with the Federal Election Bureau officials to defeat Obrador, and give the election to Fox's handpicked successor, Calderon.

I don't know if what Obrador says is true or not. But after the last two presidential elections in the U.S., I certainly believe it is a possibility. We are just beginning to learn how easy it is to rig an election with a computer.

Whether there was fraud or not, I believe there should be a recount. When millions of people vote and the winning margin is not even 1%, there should always be a recount [and I'm not talking about a computer recount]. No matter how long it takes, each ballot should be manually recounted. It may be a lot of trouble, but then you really know who the winner is.