I suppose by now you heard the clarification from MSNBC last night that the 19,000 ballots did not represent 19,000 VOTES NOT CAST. They were a pile of ballots that WERE REPLACED WHEN PEOPLE REALIZED THEIR MISTAKE. The reason they were initially brought to the public's attention was to illustrate just how confusing the ballot was--NOT TO SAY THAT 19,000 VOTES WERE NOT CAST.

As to Democracy/Republic; The flaw with Democracy is best illustrated by the story of a certain two men and a woman. The one man turns to the other and says "I say we have sex with the woman here--let's put it to a vote".

John