Were the chaotic presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 an anomaly or a harbinger of things to come this November? Next to the campaign fundraising that's under the constant spotlight trained on the center ring of the circus known as "buying of the president" is a side ring known as "fiddling with the election." Sometimes the acts there steal the show, as happened in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. As another fateful election approaches, a politicized debate is raging about voter fraud and voter suppression, in which neither side can agree on the nature of the problem, and every solution put forward is derided as a bid for partisan advantage. The real question remains unanswered: Are the systemic problems of the last two presidential elections likely to recur when the presumptive nominees, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, square off in November?

Were the chaotic presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 an anomaly or a harbinger of things to come this November? Next to the campaign fundraising that's under the constant spotlight trained on the center ring of the circus known as "buying of the president" is a side ring known as "fiddling with the election." Sometimes the acts there steal the show, as happened in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. As another fateful election approaches, a politicized debate is raging about voter fraud and voter suppression, in which neither side can agree on the nature of the problem, and every solution put forward is derided as a bid for partisan advantage. The real question remains unanswered: Are the systemic problems of the last two presidential elections likely to recur when the presumptive nominees, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, square off in November?