Democracy can be messy.

You find that in any number of stories about voting irregularities. For example, in Florida's 13th congressional district, Republican Vern Buchanan won last fall by just 369 votes. Democrat Christine Jennings cried foul, noting that some 18,000 ballots were cast without a vote for either candidate. (The House of Representatives is investigating.)

Not to worry, though, because organized labor has a way to end electoral controversy: Eliminate the private ballot.

Big Labor doesn't put it that bluntly, but that's the upshot of the inaccurately named "Employee Free Choice Act," which union leaders are pushing hard before Congress. If the measure becomes law, it would completely change the way workers form a union. Instead of using a private ballot, union leaders could unionize a company by "persuading" a simple majority of employees to sign union cards.

It sounds simple, but consider the implications.

"Card check" gives union organizers carte blanche when it comes to convincing workers to have a union represent them. They can visit employees at their homes to try to talk them into signing up. And good luck saying "no." If union officials can't get half the company's employees to sign up the first time around, no problem! They simply revisit everyone who didn't sign. And revisit them. And revisit them. They can keep coming round, day and night -- as often as it takes to pressure the holdouts into signing.

Look what happened in 2000 when organizers tried to unionize Trico Marine, a Texas-based company that supplies materials to offshore oil-drilling outfits.

One employee in Louisiana actually had an arrest warrant issued against a union organizer after that organizer visited his home eight times. Another employee reported that union organizers shot videotape of him outside his home. He thought he was being marked for potential violence. Continued...