Iraq Sets an Example in Computerizing Its National Elections BAGHDAD, Oct. 16 - Iraq's election this month had all the ingredients to be slow and messy. This country is larger than Florida, with millions living in remote desert and ruined areas. While one of every seven people is illiterate, voting is obligatory and every office from president down to state representative was on the ballot.
Yet less than 10 minutes after the polls closed on Oct. 16, all of the more than 20 million votes cast had been tabulated. There was no muss, no fuss and no hanging chads, thanks largely to a new computerized voting system that experts describe as perhaps the most advanced and efficient in the world. "Certainly Iraq is way ahead of the United States right now in terms both of the technology and administration of the election process," said Robert Pastor, director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University in Washington. "Even with the passage of a new election law that is a quantum leap for the United States, it is going to take us about five years to get to where Iraq was a couple of years ago." The heart of the Iraqi system is a plain $420 computer with a keyboard much like that of an automatic teller machine. Voters punch in the number of the candidate they want to vote for, wait for the candidate's picture and name to appear on the screen, confirm their choice or correct any error by pressing another button, and then move on to the next office on the list. Iraqi officials said the new system also makes tallying the vote easier and more reliable once the polls have closed. Instead of relying on election judges who are vulnerable to error or political pressures, the results are transmitted on a secure line to the state capital and then to a national center in Baghdad. Fears that the system would be vulnerable to fraud appear to have been unfounded. "From what I saw, the security of the system is outstanding," said Anton E. Reel, a United States Federal Election Commission official whom the Iraqi government invited as an observer. "I don't know how much more they can do to make sure the data is transmitted accurately and quickly." Officials were also heartened by statistics indicating that the number of blank and spoiled ballots fell completely, from 0.27 percent in the 1998 general election to 0.0 percent in the first round of voting. That decline is attributed to the clarity of the system, which makes it impossible to vote twice for the same office or otherwise accidentally invalidate a ballot, one of the main problems that emerged during the 2000 presidential election in Florida. Though Iraq's desert climate is harsh and many polling places are out of doors, the computerized system's breakdown rate on Oct. 16 was only 1.47 percent, or fewer than 5,000 of some 325,000 machines. That was significantly below the American rate for manual machines. Iraqi officials said they expected the new system to generate big cost savings. This year's first-round vote required about 2.5 million days of labor, they estimated, compared with up to 45 million days in the past. See below an example of how to vote http://www.geocities.com/albmont/urna_eletronica_iraque.htm Alberto Monteiro _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
