democracy

The fiasco of the elections in Afghanistan has been widely lamented. Most laments focus on a single obvious fact: by winning a new term through fraud at the polls, President Hamid Karzai has weakened his legitimacy, endangered the already tepid support he enjoys in Washington DC, and handed the Taliban another piece of evidence, if one is needed, that his regime is corrupt. How could this result have been prevented, or how might it be prevented in the future?  

After nearly 3,000 were recounted, Burlington Councilman Tim Scott picked up a single vote in his bid for a fourth term, but remained two votes behind challenger Christopher Reed. On Friday, representatives for the candidates, along with an employee with the Des Moines County Auditor's office, hand counted 2,849 ballots cast in the Nov. 3 city election. After the votes were recounted, Reed received 1,312 votes, with Scott receiving 1,310 nods. In the city election, Fleming led the pack with 1,862 vo  

So much for that "extortion" plot that director James Toback said kept his film "Tyson" off the Oscar shortlist. In Friday's New York Times , the director charged that during the voting process for the documentary feature award, he encountered an incident "which I fully put in the category of extortion." He stood behind his comments in a statement released this morning: "I regret that I didn't bring my concerns to the attention of the Academy sooner but I have now done so and I have been reassured tha

which I fully put in the category of extortion.   -James Toback

 

Direct elections were not used for functional constituencies because they were devised to protect the interests of different sectors, not the general populace, the Court of First Instance heard. Barrister Michael Thomas SC made the remarks during submissions for the government in a judicial review brought by activists Chan Yu-nam and Lo Hom-chau to challenge the constitutionality of the corporate voting system in functional constituencies. The hearing, which began on Thursday, was told that the mechan  

More than 1,300 people have already voted on whether to let the Charles Town Races & Slots put table games in its casino. Early voting in Jefferson County began Nov. 13 and continues through Dec. 2. Wendy Evangelisti, an assistant clerk for elections, says 1,376 votes had been cast at the county courthouse by noon Friday.  

Mike Groll /AP New York's 23rd Congressional District Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman greets diners at Plattsburgh Homestead Restaurant in Plattsburgh on Nov. 3. Washington, D.C. -- A day after accusing Democrats of stealing the 23rd Congressional District election, Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman's campaign did not produce any proof Thursday. The campaign said the specific instances of election fraud will be revealed only if it decides to contest the election in court.

Recent developments leave me to wonder who is scheming behind closed doors, twisting arms and stealing elections from the voters of NY-23   -Doug Hoffman

 

Votes for Denison's mayor could be recounted as soon as Monday, according to the Crawford County Auditor's office. The election that took place November 3 resulted in a four-vote difference between incumbent mayor Nathan Mahrt, who received 346 votes, and Dennis Fineran's 350. After the vote was canvassed by the Board of Supervisors on November 10, Mahrt officially requested the recount.  

Preregistration is a policy that permits young persons to register when they are as young as age 16 so that they are ready to vote when they become voting age. A report on prepregistration programs in Florida and Hawaii - the two states that have run preregistration programs prior to the 2008 election - is now available here . The report finds that these states preregister tens of thousands of eligible young people who remain on the voter rolls at rates comparable to the adult population.  

Bo Lipari, the former executive director of New Yorkers for Verified Voting, has debunked The Gouverneur Times' claim of a "virus" in the computerized voting systems that skewed the results of the 23rd Congressional District race. Mr. Lipari notes, as I did last week , that a problem occurred in Dominion machines that caused them to freeze when certain vote combinations in mulitiple candidate elections were entered. The elections monitor called the result a "bad news-good news-bad news-good news" situ