Elections as an instrument of political control 143 plan for “stealing” that election centered on the key state of Florida whose electoral votes were considered decisive in the close contest. The tactics reportedly employed – allegedly on the orders of the state's governor, Jeb Bush (George's brother) – consisted basically of making it difcult for ethnic minorities and low-income families (who are traditionally sympathetic to the Democratic Party) to vote. This was achieved by neglecting to upload the names of selected groups to the election-day voters' list, disqualifying certain voters from voting because of supposed felonies, turning voters away who did not have driver's licenses or more than one photo ID card, causing trafc in Democratic strongholds so that voters would not be able to get to the polls on time, misplacing or losing ballot boxes from certain polling stations, and intimidating election boards to inuence the tallying of votes. (Actually, though, it hardly matters whether a Republican or a Democrat is elected US President since both major political parties in the US raise the bulk of their campaign funding from essentially the same elite interests.) As regularly revealed in election after election in the approximately hundred years that popular democracy has been in vogue, the standard toolbox of election riggers has remained pretty much the same. These methods consist of: 1) disrupting the campaigns of opposition candidates, 2) arresting or murdering opponents, 3) padding voters' lists, 4) buying votes through retail or wholesale bribery, 5) using armed thugs to prevent voters from voting in opposition bailiwicks, 6) stealing ballot boxes and stufng them with fabricated ballots, 7) doctoring tally sheets, 8) exerting control over news media, and 9) making sure that the institutions conducting the elections and tallying the votes are staffed with minions friendly to the election riggers. The Philippines is not an innocent polity with regard to election shenanigans. The Filipino economic and social elite – restored to prominence and legitimacy by American General Douglas MacArthur's effective absolution of them from charges of wartime collaboration with the Japanese invaders – quickly took control of the nation's postwar politics, doubtless having learned the economic advantages of political control from their exposure to their American patrons. The Liberal Party's Manuel Roxas, supported by MacArthur (his compadre), was elected president – his Nacionalista Party opponent was Sergio Osmeña who deigned to campaign – and was inaugurated (with MacArthur present) at Manila's Luneta Park when the Philippines was granted independence by the USA on July 4, 1946. As part of the quid pro quo, Roxas was forced to grant the United States 23 military bases in the country and concede the “parity rights” that gave Americans the same rights and privileges as Filipinos in the exploitation of the country's natural resources. Like election riggers everywhere, election riggers in the Philippines use what has been picturesquely dubbed in this country as the three Gs – guns, goons, and gold. In the 1949 presidential elections, for example, the then ruling Liberal Party – whose candidate was Elpidio Quirino – (allegedly) bribed voters, padded voting lists (so that “even the birds and bees voted”), used