Millions of dollars in voting equipment arrives in Iraq

[Barrett808]

Tonnes of ballot boxes and other electoral equipment worth millions of dollars arrived in Iraq and were being dispatched across the country for the January 30 vote.

Doctor Farid Ayar, spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI), took reporters to a warehouse at Baghdad International Airport where the largest shipment to date was flown in early Wednesday.

Ayar said a total of 90,000 ballot boxes had been flown to Iraq. Between 50 and 60 million forge-proof ballot papers -- printed for the most part in Australia and Canada -- have also been delivered.

According to Ayar, the combined shipments of electoral equipment flown into Iraq weigh 3,300 tonnes. "All this cost 157 million dollars but there will be additional costs," he said.

The government has allocated 250 million dollars for the election inside Iraq and another 90 million dollars for the overseas vote. Tens of millions of dollars have also been pledged by the international community to contribute to the electoral process.

"Security is a serious challenge, but everything is on schedule and we have done everything for things to be ready at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) on January 30," said Ayar.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/afp/20050119/wl_mideast_afp/iraqvoteballots

[Richardo]

1. Special! Direct from Ohio's inner cities!

Practically unused!!

[cthrumatrix]

7. I'll wait for the exit polls...... (smirk)

[Jacobin]

2. But, is the equipment fire/bomb proof?

[RetroLounge]

3. Is Diebold running things?

In that case, I bet bush** wins the election.

RL

[ohioliberal]

4. And why can't we vote like this?

[leftchick]

10. because then chimpy would not be king*

[daleo]

5. Forge proof paper.

That's funny.

[Barrett808]

6. "5,200 polling stations"? I thought there were to be 9,000

What happened to the other 3,800?

[Justyce]

9. Hey, cut 'em some slack --

it takes a while to rig 9000 machines! ;)

[Triana]

8. all fixed and ready to go...

...I'm sure gwb and the CIA have those machines and the election all fixed to make sure the person wins whom they want to win. The US is, after all, notorious for manipulating elections in other countries too, not just its own....

[VegasWolf]

11. It will be embarrasing if these "voting machines" give a bush win.n/t

[Justyce]

13. LOL!! n/t

[RedCloud]

12. Numbers just don't jive again!

I looked only into Wyoming where the votes exceeded the total number of voters registered by the Spring 2004 primaries. They had an awesome turnout baby! Maybe 110%!

Check this out:«Ayar said a total of 90,000 ballot boxes had been flown to Iraq. Between 50 and 60 million forge-proof ballot papers -- printed for the most part in Australia and Canada -- have also been delivered.»


This (90,000) means about 1 ballot box per Iraqi not already killed. This same living Iraqi will get to vote about 500 times OR ELSE!
50 million ballot proof forgeries are arriving. Just how many Iraqis will the USA allow to vote? Does the Carlyle Group get a vote for every million dollars they have at "risk"?

[leftchick]

14. Photo of a ballot.... Hmmmm

I wonder if they will use optiscan to read these?

[shirlden]

15. DUH !!!!! really dumb question

Can someone splain why they need 50 to 60 million ballots for a country that has less than 25 million people ???????


:bounce:

[bobbyboucher]

16. If they came from Diebold, Bush would win.

By a landslide.

[2Design]

17. be funny if * came out the winner - just to show how they are programmed

another planned outcome

[Rockerdem]

18. Ken Blackwell put his seal of approval on them