I didn't realize I actually moved to Chicago

I was talking with one of the locals in our office today about the elections here. She was telling me that she had heard that over 100,000 dead people were registered to vote. She also said that she was under the impression that some polling places were intentionally misspelling living people's names on the voter rolls so that when they come to vote, their documentation won't match the rolls and they won't be allowed to. I suppose I could tut-tut this all as shameful and unbelievable and counter productive to democracy, but I read things like this, this, or this whole collection of interesting items, and wonder if what's going on in the US is really any better or more upstanding than what's going on here. There's a possibility here that the opposition could take to the streets if they lose. In America a wife of a Vice-Presidential candidate is saying that people won't take to the street if her side wins. I certainly don't think that at it's heart, the American electoral process has completely devolved so as to be on the same level as Venezuela, Belarus, or here. But sometimes I think people across the American political spectrum are doing their damnedest to make sure we get to that point.

In other, semi-related, news, there is a parade tomorrow to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Kiev from the German fascists. Only problem is the actual liberation occurred on November 6th. Rumors are that the date was moved up to prevent giving people an excuse to gather and protest and to give the govt. an excuse to bring a lot of soldiers into the city before the elections. But these are all rumors. Again, I have no clue what's really going on. But I plan on attending the parade tomorrow. If it's good enough for Kuchma, Putin, Luckashenko, and Nazarbayev; it's good enough for me.