Democracy: masses of voters selecting among bidders for power, with only their own interests to restrain the choice, and little to restrain the bids offered.What's best for an individual is not always good for society and vice versa. When the decision is made by a citizen alone in a voting booth, that citizen's needs are in the booth with him; the needs of society are outside the curtain and often enough, so is his conscience.At the next level where the votes are counted, the people who count them work for elected politicians powerfully interested in the outcome. Today's electronic voting machines are supplied by a small handful of specialists, some tinged with corruption, selected and paid by those same political interests. There is often insufficient proof of the result of the machine counts and the process isn't fully protected from hackers. Hand recounts of punched-card and paper ballots show both human error and political interference; a result is this Law of Close Elections.

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