No wonder Bush and Rove insisted up to the last minute that Republicans were going to win. According to data in the article below, the Democratic "Wave" probably would have been a lot larger, if the election hadn't been hacked. Below is a link to what appears to be a very careful analysis of the 2006 elections, based on the raw exit poll data ("uncorrected," meaning not yet changed to reflect the final count).
http://www.opednews.com/...
The article concludes...
that Democrats received significantly more votes than the election machines recorded: over 55% instead of about 52+%, indicating that the machines were systematically hacked, to provide a sufficient margin (3%) for a Republican win if the electorate hadn't continued to move in favor of the Democrats beyond the margins picked up in polls around Oct 1.
We've had a reprieve in the 2006 election, probably because the movement towards Democrats was too strong to counter by the programs put in place some time after Oct. 1.(The article explains why they couldn't have been put in place closer to the election.)
In order to be sure that 2000 and 2004 don't happen again, a requirement for paper receipts (verified by voters) and a legal imperative for at least random hand recounts (of the paper receipts), will be necessary if we are ever again going to have confidence in our voting system. A bill that would have accomplished this was put forward in Congress in this session, but of course the Republican leadership never let it go to a vote. It now has about 220 co-sponsors.
I think letters to your Congressmen and Senators is in order.