As it gets closer to Election Day, the deceptions, dirty tricks and outright lies are multiplying. Some candidates can’t live with the truth, so they simply make it up and hope that enough voters are lazy or gullible enough to go along with them. In case after case in local politics, candidates or their operatives twist the truth to satisfy their own selfish ends. This is nothing new. Mike Stocker/Sun SentinelSteve Bousquet, Sun Sentinel columnist Lying to get elected to public office is an American political tradition, and one reason why it persists is that it works — or at least candidates believe it does.