What did you do on election day?

I wonder what happens?

As you read this, you know. As I write it, I do not.

Does the election of 2006 go as predicted, with Democrats balancing the power with Republicans? Or does it end in a dead heat in key states, delaying victory to the victors and the voters, until almost nobody cares anymore?

Does Alan Hevesi’s last-minute ad apologizing for his uncharacteristic abuse of power pull him out of political purgatory long enough to keep a competent person in charge of the pensions of state workers? Or do we pay for his human frailty twice—once with another loss of faith in an elected official, and twice with an incompetent hack running the complex financial empire that is New York?

Whatever happens, I hope the democracy wins. But more than ever, I fear it won’t. A recent report on the hackability of computerized voting sent shivers down my (lower-case) democratic spine.

In another century, Paul Revere would be riding through the streets declaring, “The Diebolds are coming, the Diebolds are coming!”

Karl Rove’s air of calm, which may be all political bluff, doesn’t calm me. What does he know that we don’t?

In another election-year column, I cautioned against the same kind of fear I now express. A loss of faith in the system was exactly what the Dick Cheneys of the world wanted. Disenfranchise the voters and run the country for the country-club set.

And I’m not advocating staying home on election day. I’ll vote as often as I can!

But counting on the inertia of weary, overworked Americans isn’t safe enough for the Cheney crowd. Not when the stakes are so high. Besides, they could make a buck off the manipulation of democracy. A win-win, no?

A tails-you-lose, heads-I-win mentality designed our new computerized voting system. Listen, and you can hear the guffaws from the clubhouse as the gin martinis are shaken, not stirred.

If I were stealing this democracy, this would be the year to steal. After all, how many times can you count on a friend in Florida? Better to fiddle with the thing in almost imperceptible ways. An election district here, a Senate race there. Start a candidate with a negative number of votes. Without a paper trail, who’s to know?

According to polls, a lot of regular Republican voters are unhappy with the way things are going. (Remember when polls were annoyingly accurate? Before the election of 2000?) Many Republican voters may choose to sit out the election of 2006, but more may choose to cast their lot with Democrats or Independents. Some think this White House and Congress have made big mistakes.

But what if those aren’t mistakes at all? What if everything is going according to plan?

Wall Street isn’t unhappy, and they are as easy to read as an old-fashioned voting machine. What if the burdensome debt of the federal government is exactly what this administration had in mind?

After all, a bankrupt government can’t enforce penalties on corporations for environmental disasters. Or fund social programs or education or health-care. Why, a bankrupt government can’t even fight wars, can they?

Maybe they can, if they are fought by corporations and high-paid freedom-fighters who can afford their own body armor.

And if those corporate freedom-fighters are assisted on the front lines of deadly wars by people whose government has left them precious little employment in manufacturing or other skilled labor, by farming it out to the lowest bidder offshore....

Maybe the most important election this year is the New York Comptroller’s race. Hevesi has done a good job of managing the state coffers (if not his own). But he’s set a bad example of personal behavior. Good government, bad behavior. Reminds me of another Democrat we once knew.

Good government works for the people. Good government is local and responsive, not global and arrogant. Good government is what Paul Revere was fighting for. It’s what we all vote for, no matter what our party is. Count the votes right and the people will decide. Let us get what we deserve.

Whatever you did on election day, I hope you filled up your oil tanks. I know I did.