The election is just a week away and my hope is that I don’t end up being disenfranchised — again. If the folks in Ohio and Florida can weep and moan about how they were cheated out of their votes in 2000 and 2004, I can surely join the club and whip up sympathy for my woes at the ballot box. While mechanical mistakes can happen to anyone on Election Day at one time or another, voter fraud is a whole other animal.

Readers of this column may remember my experience on Primary Day in September, when a poll worker automatically assumed I was a Democrat and erroneously configured the voting machine for that party. Because the machine could not be used until a Democrat came in to vote, I was told to fill out a paper ballot. The worker who made the error claimed to be a Republican, so I considered the incident a genuine error. Oddly enough, I received a number of calls and e-mails from white Republicans in the Bronx and Manhattan who experienced the same faux pas. One is even a City Hall official. I wonder if all their votes were tossed out like mine.

I received a notice from the Board of Elections telling me that my paper ballot was invalid because I voted on the machine. I did not. A mistake was made. Good gracious: I’ve been disenfranchised. Call the ACLU, La Raza: My vote has been trashed. I feel so helpless.

Okay, enough kidding around. An honest mistake was made and the next time I vote in a primary, I’ll make sure the poll worker knows what party I’m registered to. I’m a regular voter and have lived at the same address for 28 years, so I always know where I’m supposed to vote. Unfortunately, in crucial elections where the massive party machines recruit neo-voters who are unfamiliar with the process, mistakes can be made. More likely, though, the problem is voter fraud may be at work.

A few years ago, my stepson, Bill, witnessed a group of developmentally disabled adults being guided into a voting booth by their escorts, who told them to vote straight down the Democrat column. They were under the impression they were going bowling. Clearly, this is against the law, but hey, this is New York, where people can vote as often as they want on the same day if they’re in the right party.

Democrat vote fraud is rarely ever investigated or punished, except when the defendant is considered a threat. The only Democrat I know of who was convicted was a former Wall Street attorney, John Kennedy O’Hara. His crime was registering at his girlfriend’s address as well as his own apartment, even though he was living at both places at the time. Apparently, there’s a rarely enforced New York State law requiring voters to only register primary permanent addresses. Susan B. Anthony and O’Hara are the only two convicted under this voter registration law. O’Hara was disbarred, convicted of a felony in 1999 and had his life destroyed, but is still appealing his conviction. He claims that he has been prosecuted because of his efforts to reform what he calls a corrupt Brooklyn Democratic machine. Corruption in Brooklyn? Surely you jest.

But just try to get legislation for voting reform in this town. It will never happen. Instead, voters who claim to live at the Main Post Office on 33rd Street will continue to vote without fear of prosecution.

Because of the primary poll snafu, I was reluctant to recommend absentee balloting to any members of my family who might find it difficult to vote next week. Who knows if they’ll be counted? Not all the military ballots were counted in 2000. A 50,000-vote Bush lead in Florida magically disappeared in minutes and a Palm Beach City Democrat official, Irving Schlossberg, was found with a ballot-punching Vote-A-Matic machine in his car.

The Democrats are positive that as of next week they’ll be back in power, and polls seem to lend credence to their optimism. New York’s own Blog Queen, Lucianne Goldberg, the CEO of the best Web site on the Net, Lucianne.com, was interviewed by Fox News’s Neil Cavuto, and disagrees. She bases her opinion on the input from the millions of daily hits on her Web site. “We do hear from the people every day,” she said. “It’s an interactive site. Bloggers are out in, you know, in the middle of America. They are not sitting at 21. They are not here in New York living the good life or the Beltway. They are out there, where people really are telling them what’s happening.”

I share Ms. Goldberg’s optimism for the country, but as for New York, we’re as doomed as doomed can be.