I’ll be honest. I’m not sure if your vote will count.

I try to be optimistic and think that if we all get out and vote, they can’t steal a third presidential election in a row. But then I think, “Why not?”

Who is “they,” you might ask? Well, I’m not 100 percent sure. Is it simply a set of businessmen and power brokers who just want to ensure that they pull the strings on the next puppet president? Is it some organized faction of the Republican party? I don’t really know.

But I do believe that the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections were stolen. And I think it’s entirely possible this time around, too.

Greg Palast, one of the few journalists who speaks of how democracy is being snatched out of the hands of the people, described how the 2008 election could be stolen in an article today. Here are a few samples from that article, which you can read in its entirety here.

• “Before this election, two Republican secretaries of state [of Colorado] purged 19.4 percent of the entire voter roll. One in five voters”
• “In 2004, based on the data from the US Elections Assistance Commission, 3,006,080 votes were not counted: ’spoiled,’ unreadable and blank ballots; ‘provisional’ ballots rejected; mail-in ballots disqualified. This Tuesday, it will be worse. Much worse.”
• “You’ve mailed in your ballot. Last time around, over half a million mail-in ballots were junked: everything from postage due to not liking your signature to a circle checked, not filled in. Mailing in a ballot is playing Russian roulette with it. About a tenth get junked.”

And those are just a few of the frightening examples from Palast, who also joined forced with Robert Kennedy Jr. to write an article about election theft for Rolling Stone.

And let’s not forget that the United States has never been a real democracy anyway. It’s a representative democracy that seems to rarely actually have people in office who truly represent their constituents. Take Rep. Rick Boucher, for instance. Most agree that he’s been a good Congressman for Virginia’s 9th District. But all the polls say John McCain is favored in Southwest Virginia so is Boucher representing you when he endorses Barack Obama? I know he’s not representing me when he supports clean coal technology and allows mountaintop removal in Wise County.

Not to mention, what is this Electoral College system all about? If America were a democracy, then the will of the people would rule. Didn’t the people vote for Al Gore for president in 2000? The Electoral College takes the power away from your average Joe Sixpack Plumber Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker.

But the fact is that the theft of the election itself isn’t the only event that threatens our democracy today. Let’s look at the entire presidential election process. It’s been hijacked by the Democrats and the Republicans. It’s amazing how these two groups can waste so much of our time and money with their partisan bickering but will then join forces to keep all other voices out of the political arena.

Remember those great debates you watched this year between candidates from the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Constitution, Green, Socialist, and other parties, as well as Independents? Yeah, I don’t remember those either. Perhaps you do remember hearing about the Commission on Presidential Debates that brought us all those events? Well that’s a group formed by the Republicans and Democrats to keep the power in their own hands. They decide who’s a part of those big prime-time televised debates, and it’s not going to be Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney or Bob Barr.

In a democracy, all voices should be heard. In this country the powers that be make a special effort to keep out any voices other than their own.

I mean who is it that our elected officials, at least those on the national stage, are listening to anyway? Is it me and you? Not likely. I know someone right here in the New River Valley who almost daily writes a letter to her Sen. John Warner, Sen. Jim Webb, and Rep. Rick Boucher asking them where is Congress on this issue or that? I wonder if she ever gets a response?

We all know that the lobbyists have the real power. How many times have you or I had the opportunity to sit down and talk one-to-one with Warner, Webb, or Boucher? How many times have played a round of golf with them or chatted with them while on some luxurious trip? Well, the lobbyists get those opportunities. And then when those candidates need campaign contributions, guess where it comes from? Yep, the lobbying firms and the clients they represent.

So on this election eve, I hate to be the one to tell you that democracy is on life support in this country. It’s barely hangin’ in there, and I’m not sure it can be saved. I do know, though, that we need to do all we can to save it. And that begins by voting and making sure that our votes are counted.

If not, we could easily look back in a few years at Nov. 4, 2008, and recall a line like Don McLean’s: “Something touched me deep inside, the day democracy died.”

Tim W. Jackson wants to be an optimist. He wants to believe that America can bounce back after 8 years of Bush Inc. He wants to have the hope that this country will come together and heal. But he’s tired of being disappointed.