"Machines" to swing elections, the old "hardball" of local/national politics isnt either new, or especially attached to either of the two major parties in the USA.
Arguably, in the last century the biggest "hole in the ballot box" was the "information to voters" bit of democracy - the "media" - in fact, what number of people in the states - or the world - are aware that the president/vice-president hopes of the USA Greens were BOTH women - ( also both black, by the way) - or of what Ron Pauls alternate G.O.P campaign actually stood for.
But the biggest problem in these current campaigns is certainly the "opaque", easy-to-tamper-with computer-voting-machines. Actual computer experts of ALL politics agree about this when they have the information - in fact some of the most serious scientists trying to get the attention of the world to these abuses were from the GOP too. Its like a bike shop refusing to flog bicycles with square wheels despite the fact that customers might buy them.
This weeks news that the last Administrations dodgy "computer operator" has got onto the payroll of the present GOP team is FAR from good news.
The media distortions, the possible rigging of opinion polls, the tendency against actual policies-discussions, the "subtle twists" in allegedly friendly press - to both campaigns ( the people actually at the back of much of this interference ARE fighting this campaign policy by policy at the same time as they try to ensure that the public see it as cartoon against cartoon) - all of these are problems - that get worse - but the crux of all this is the computer-votes.
Global pressure, 7 weeks from the election, DOES have a serious hope of making a difference.
There are a lot of good, serious bits of background information out there - yes, amidst the chaff- but worth looking!