According to the chair of Miami-Dade Democrats, the giveaway was that nobody was wearing

a guayabera, the light, short-sleeved shirt popular in Cuba and across the Caribbean,

and a staple in Miami.

The mob harassing election officials in November 2000 were from out of town.

The Wall Street Journal described them as 50-year-old white lawyers with cell phones and

airmeas ties.

Their blue blazers were standard issue for Republicans in Washington.

The episode became known as the Brooks Brothers Riot after the preppy outfitter.

The fashion faux pas and the low-tech tactics make it seem quaint, but it had a sinister

side.

The mob managed to thwart a court order to recount thus ensuring that George W. Bush

would become the next president.

Now, once again, votes are being recounted in a state where the president's margin of

victory was slim, and election administrators are being threatened.

But this time, it's almost eight months after the election was over.

This is Chex and Balance.

I'm John Prado, the economist's US editor, and each week we take one big theme shaping

American politics and explore it in depth.

Today is America's election system under threat.

Election administration used to be a sleepy corner of American bureaucracy.

Now it's the latest arena for extreme polarization, as Republicans continued to challenge the legitimacy

of last year's result.

...