Gee, can't you just smell that democracy growing in Iraq?

[CatWoman]

They like us!!!

They really like us!!!

What's that about "imitation" and "flattery"??

Commission Finds Irregularities in Iraqi Voter Registration

By EDWARD WONG
Published: December 11, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 11 - With just four days to go until parliamentary elections, the Iraqi electoral commission said today that it had found irregularities in voter registration in the volatile northern oil city of Kirkuk.

The discovery was the first instance of an election irregularity announced by the commission as the country prepared for the vote on Thursday.

The commission said experts conducting an audit of voter lists found that there had been an unexpected surge in voter registration in the area. When the experts scrutinized the voter registration forms, the commission said in a written statement, they found that many had been filled out incorrectly. Some had missing signatures and others had more than one signature. In some cases, the same name appeared on several forms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/international/middleeast/11cnd-vote.html

[madeline_con]

1. May I take this one?

As is the custom in many Muslim areas of the world, the same sig on several forms could be the patriarch of a family signing up the whole gang to run down to the polls come election day.

More than one? Maybe a husband signing for the wife. Missing sigs could be illiterate voters. (?)

Either way, it won't make a hill of beans where our interference is concerned.

[RagingInMiami]

2. The smell of victory in Iraq

Smells like burning phosphorus.