A day before the election and by most accounts, it is too close to call.  The Democrats will do anything within their means to effect a desirable outcome in tomorrow's presidential race -- bussing in students, paying people to register and vote (e.g., Ohio), dead people voting, people voting multiple times, New Black Panther voter intimidation, etc. are all on the table, as they know in their hearts that they will not be seriously challenged if Obama and his administration prevail.  The wealthy far-left elites, however, rely on more insidious techniques to influence the outcome.

In 2006, George Soros and his Democracy Alliance comrades formed Secretary of State Project (SOSP), a 527 group whose primary aim is to help elect left-leaning secretaries of state, who will theoretically oversee the ballot recounts in battleground states for elections that are too close to call.  The group was formed in response to the controversial 2000 presidential election, when George W. Bush eked out a win in Florida.  The Gore campaign challenged the certification, which the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld. We all know the rest of the story.  Democrats to this day still think Bush stole the election.

The group boastfully claims to have initially aided in the election of eleven out of thirteen SOS candidates it targeted -- most notably Mark Ritchie of Minnesota, who oversaw the recount of ballots in the MN senate race between incumbent Norm Coleman and DFL candidate Al Franken, the latter of whom ultimately won by a scant 312 votes.  Prior to the recount, Coleman held an initial 215-vote advantage, but 938 previously rejected absentee ballots were eventually counted.

Other SOSP notables include Michigan's Jennifer Brunner and Nevada's Ross Miller.  Brunner chose to run for the U.S. Senate, while Miller was re-elected in 2010.  However, the SOSP declined to support Miller due to the voter fraud investigation he initiated into the Las Vegas chapter of the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN).

Fast-forward to November 2012, and it appears that the SOSP will have little or no effect (at least this go-round) on the presidential election.  Of eleven or twelve battleground states, only five secretaries of state are Democrats, and of those five, only two are or were SOSP backed-candidates: Miller of Nevada and Ritchie of Minnesota.  In the key battleground states of Florida, Ohio, and Virginia, the SOS office is held by a Republican, as is the case in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

SOSP appears to be on the receiving end of diminished returns unless the election hinges on results from Minnesota and/or Nevada.  Romney can afford to lose one or both, especially if he wins Florida, Ohio, and Virginia.

The battleground state breakdown is as follows:

Colorado - Scott Gessler (R)

Florida - Ken Detzner (R)

Iowa - Matt Schultz (R)

Michigan - Ruth Johnson (R)

Minnesota - Mark Ritchie (DFL)

Nevada - Ross Miller (D)

New Hampshire - Bill Gardner (D) 1976-present

North Carolina - Gary Bartlett (D)

Ohio - Jon Husted (R)

Pennsylvania - Carol Aichele (R)

Virginia - Janet Vestal Kelly (R)

Wisconsin - Douglas La Follette (D) 1983-present

While we can perhaps breathe a sigh of relief for the time being, we cannot and must not let our guard down for future elections -- specifically in secretary of state contests.  Soros and his ilk will, if anything, step up their efforts, especially if Romney does win.

So sorry, Mr. Soros, but you won't be able to influence the election this time.  You will just have to resort to other forms of corruption.

Debra Mullins is a quality management consultant and a 5^th-generation Oregonian who resides in Oregon's southern Willamette Valley.