IRAN'S BUTTERFLY BALLOT? - Democratic Underground

Great Slideshow here at BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8097051.stm

A Florida Style Nightmare Ahead?
Iran's 2009 election may be tarnished by the equivalent of a butterfly ballot,
it could be a case of Bush V Gore and the Supremes, or it could be shades of Franken VS Coleman Iranian style.
Iranians faced long lines to cast votes on confusing ballots that were not truly secret.
There is no better cover for election fraud than confusion.

The AP Top News at 1:58 a.m. EDT

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's Interior Ministry claimed hard-line incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was heading for a surprise landslide victory Saturday in the country's stormy presidential elections. But his pro-reform rival countered that he was the clear victor and accused authorities of voter fraud. The dispute sharply boosted tensions and raised fears of a standoff after an intense monthlong race between the combative president and his main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi. A large turnout at the polls had boosted victory hopes for Mousavi, who is backed by a growing youth-oriented movement.

Andrew Sullivan predicts Iran's Bush V Gore and some other colorful words:

A Clusterfuck In Iran

First Read checks in on the Iranian elections:

The Associated Press is reporting that the state media in Iran has declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner in that country's presidential election. But Reuters writes that Ahmadinejad's top challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has called himself the "definite winner." Shades of Bush vs. Gore in 2000? We'll have more when we see it.

Joe Klein is worried about the very confusing ballots:

The candidates are listed by name and by number...and also by code. You vote by writing down the candidate's name and then his...what? Number...or code? No one is quite sure. The leading reformer, Mir-Hussein Moussavi, has the number 4 and the code 777. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has the number 1 and the code 444. So the question arises: If you vote for Moussavi and list his number as 4...have you actually voted for Ahmadinejad? And why on earth have they devised such a complicated ballot in the first place?

Wikipedia tells how Iran's Presidential Elections are run:

Election process
Further information: President of Iran

The President is elected by direct vote. Candidates need to win a majority (50% plus one vote) to become President.
Iran has a two-round system: if none of the candidates wins the majority in the first round, the two top candidates from the first round will go to a second round, and whoever wins the majority of votes in the second round is elected President.

The first round was held on 12 June 2009, and the second round, if necessary, will be held one week later, on 19 June 2009. All Iranian citizens of age 18 and up are eligible to vote. Both the Iranian Center for Statistics and the Iranian Ministry of the Interior have stated that there are around 46.2 million eligible voters.

How voters cast their ballot in Iran VIDEO

From the video, the balloting process described:
Women and men have different lines to join in order to vote. They do not get in the same line.
Voters present ID, receive a ballot and an identifying number is put on that ballot.
Then the voter puts his/her fingerprint on the ballot.
Next, the voter marks the ballot (est 4"X6" in size) by pen, and puts the ballot into a plastic storage tub.
The tub is secured by tamper resistant plastic ties.

The above process is not a secret ballot!
How easy it would be to weed out ballots by certain blocks of voters, or by individual.
How easy to intimidate voters when their ballot is marked by their fingerprint.