The voting fraud rumor lives and dies by the blog.

The NYT reports:

In the space of seven days, an online market of dark ideas surrounding last week's presidential election took root and multiplied.

But while the widely read universe of Web logs was often blamed for the swift propagation of faulty analyses, the blogosphere, as it has come to be known, spread the rumors so fast that experts were soon able to debunk them, rather than allowing them to linger and feed conspiracy theories. Within days of the first rumors of a stolen election, in fact, the most popular theories were being proved wrong - though many were still reluctant to let them go.

Seems healthy enough. Much better than the long-festering conspiracy theories of yore. I think some people are working through their own feelings of bitter disappointment, and nursing a little, quirky hope for a few weeks is a minor matter.

That article also features this idiotic quote from a Kerry campaign spokesman: "I'd give my right arm for Internet rumors of a stolen election to be true."