When voting systems are known to have flaws, local officials might be caught saying a certain prayer for a favorable result, from their point of view at least. A special page has been marked on the internet’s Political Dictionary, managed by Taagen Goddard, for what is known as the Election Administrator’s Prayer. Take a look:

“Please, please, please let the winners win big.” or “Lord, let this election not be close.” Doug Lewis, Executive Director of the National Association of Election Officials, was quoted by USA Today using another variation in November 2000: “God, please let the winner win in a landslide.”

Election law professor Rick Hasen used the phrase in an op-ed for Australia’s Canberra Times in 2008 noting how the American electoral system “remains haunted by the ghost of the democratic meltdown of 2000, which culminated in a US Supreme Court decision that handed the presidency to George W. Bush”

“The main bulwark against this kind of problem is not the American political establishment, which has proven itself incapable of enacting a fair and nonpartisan electoral system befitting a mature democracy. Instead, we put our faith in the law of numbers. We should all utter the US election administrator’s prayer: “Lord, let this election not be close.”