Bradblog notes eerie similarities between Iran 09 and Ohio 04.

[Stevepol]

IRAN'S 2009 ELECTION RESULTS SUGGEST MASSIVE FRAUD JUST LIKE OHIO'S IN 2004.

"Without citizen oversight and transparency, 'faith-based' elections threaten democracy no matter where they are held"





It sounds a lot like Ohio 2004. A less than popular old-line incumbent facing massive public demonstrations against him and in favor of his main progressive challenger promising reform; polls that suggest a swell of support for the challenger; unprecedented turnout on Election Day; long lines at polling places; paper ballot shortages and names missing from voter rolls; widespread rumors, concerns and evidence of voter intimidation and vote-rigging, all accompanied nonetheless by a general feeling among the populace that the incumbent has been turned out, only to learn from officials, late on Election Night, after secret vote counting, that the incumbent has been declared the winner of a second term.

The most substantive difference from Ohio 2004, however: the declared winner President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is said to have defeated his main opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi by a 63% to 34% "landslide", instead of the razor-thin margin seen in Ohio (and across the popular vote in the rest of the nation). In Iran, a result of anything less than 50% + 1 for the leading candidate would have triggered a national runoff election.

The other main differences between Iran '09 and Ohio '04: New York Times is already asking "Landslide or Fraud?" this morning; in Iran, supporters of the challenger are taking to the streets; and the challenger himself has already called the election results a "fraud."

Read the whole article, well worth the reading.

Link: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7224

(Of course the NYT wouldn't have dared raise a whimper about OH in 04. How could there be fraud in our country, the bulwark of democracy, especially considering the "Christian" and highly ethical Bush administration, which would have had to have had a hand in some shenanigans of some kind? So we know that couldn't have happened. Any doubts must just be the result of a bunch of "tin foil hats.")

[BlooInBloo]

1. Somehow I missed the riots and martial law in 2004. Guess I'm just not with it.

[vanboggie]

4. Had more people been informed

there would have been riots. The bastards stole 2004.

[mod mom]

11. We didn't riot but some of us were out in the streets for days.

[EFerrari]

12. There was a riot at the Ohio State House on election night.

It was reported for about five minutes, which is probably why you missed it.

[11cents]

2. God what a moron.

But I guess if you only have one trick for attracting attention to yourself .... It sure is inspiring to see how quickly he became an expect on Iranian politics, though.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. there's a hell of alot wrong with Iran's election.

people don't take to the streets like that if everything is hunkie dorie.

You don't end up with that kind of rioting when the public believes their votes
were counted.

[Berry Cool]

3. I knew it!

Ken Blackwell was stuffing the ballot box for Ahmadinejad.

Well, at least last November, my purple finger counted for Obama.

[Senator]

5. Sounds More Like 2000 To Me

Their long-planned theft proved incompetent, so they went and got an "supreme" edict instead.

And had our DC/Euphemedia Analstocracy not "looked forward" past the bushcheney election thefts, we might be in a moral position to help the Iranian victims.

---

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. Iran's election procedures

They have paper ballots.

Voters go in polling place -
women in one line,
men in another.

At check out table voters:
present ID
receive a ballot that has an identifier on it
and put their fingerprint on the ballot.

Voters next:
mark their ballot with a pen
put ballot(s) in plastic tub that is "secured" with plastic locking straps.

I don't know if the ballots are counted at the polls or if they are centrally counted.

These are not "secret" ballots - plus ballots segregated by sex?
Makes it easier to weed out ballots by say women who want to be treated better.

There were long lines at the polling places according to news reports.

This type of balloting is also open to coercion, not just supression, since the ballots are
not secret.

[Stevepol]

8. the votes are counted in secret by the theocracy according to Brad in the article.

The theocrocay favors Ahmydinner'sjammed.

It's just a more primitive version of secret, proprietorial code programmmed by extreme partisans of one side.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. lack of transparency, no secret ballot

Iran is missing many important ingredients for fair elections.

Coup.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

10. Gvot insiders say: Mousavi: 19,075,623, Ahmadi-nejad (incumbent): 5,698,417

Early Report Day Two: Media Police Run, Protestors Trapped by Police, Ayatollahs Daughter Arrested.
by electronicmaji
Sat Jun 13, 2009

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/14/742253/-Early-Report-Day-Two:-Media-Police-Run,-Protestors-Trapped-by-Police,-Ayatollahs-Daughter-Arrested.