Election Updates

The Mexican Federal Electoral Court ruled today that it will not allow a full recount of the ballots from the recent presidential election. As the Washington Post reports:

Mexico's top electoral court on Saturday rejected a ballot-by-ballot recount in the disputed presidential election, angering supporters of leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who have kept the nation in turmoil for weeks. In Mexico's central plaza, thousands of protesters watched the court session on a huge screen, chanting "Vote by vote!" and drowning out the judges' statements. Representatives of Lopez Obrador walked out of the session in protest.

In their first public session on the dispute, the seven judges of the Federal Electoral Court left open the possibility that they could order a partial recount. The tribunal has until Sept. 6 to declare a president-elect or annul the elections. Official tallies gave ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon, a former energy secretary, an advantage of less than 0.6 percent, or about 240,000 votes, out of more than 41 million cast.

Chief justice Leonel Castillo argued Saturday that Mexico's political parties had a chance to raise concerns and dispute results when the results were first counted July 2 and then again during an official count held the week after the vote. During an official count, Mexican law allows authorities to open ballot boxes only if there is evidence of irregularities or fraud. Castillo cautioned against straying from the law, saying recounts should be "exclusively and only" when there are obvious problems. He recommended that a partial recount begin Wednesday and last no more than five days. He also said electoral judges should oversee the process to avoid any doubts.

Interestingly, this ruling mirrors the rules in many states here in the United States for recounts. Although claims are often made that the beauty of paper ballots is that they can always be recounted, the fact is that it is the law in that state governing recounts that determines if, in fact, the ballots can in fact be recounted. electionline.org did a report last year on recounts that illustrated this point, and it is clear that Mexico too has restrictive rules governing the recounting of paper ballots.

The EAC has released four RFPs for research. They can be found here.

Solicitation Number	Title	NAICS Code	Opening Date	Closing Date
RFQ-1435-04-06-RQ-62764	USEAC Internet Voting Study	541910	7/31/2006	8/17/2006
RFQ-1435-04-06-RQ-62766	USEAC Free Absentee Ballot Return Postage Study	541910	8/1/2006	8/24/2006
RFQ-1435-04-06-RQ-62947	USEAC 1st Time Voters Study	541910	8/1/2006	8/22/2006
RFQ-1435-04-06-RQ-62946	USEAC Social Security Study	541910	8/2/2006	8/29/2006

Tom Delay and the Republican Party of Texas are learning the joys of election law. On Thursday, a federal appeals court ruled that Delay cannot be taken off of the ballot in Texas because he won the primary and isn't dead or otherwise not qualified to run. The Washington Post and the New York Times. As the Times reports:

The 3-to-0 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, is a victory for Texas Democrats, who have voiced hope that Mr. DeLay’s involvement in a series of lobbying and campaign finance scandals will help elect a Democrat to the seat. Unless an appeal to the Supreme Court keeps him off the ballot, Mr. DeLay, the former House majority leader, will become a candidate against his wishes and remain in the spotlight, a potent symbol for Democrats in races nationwide.

The appellate panel affirmed a ruling by a federal district judge in Austin who rejected claims by Mr. DeLay and the Texas Republican Party that he was ineligible to run because he had moved to Virginia. The Constitution requires only that a Congressional candidate be a resident of the district on Election Day, not before it, the judges ruled. Whether or not Mr. DeLay chooses to run, they said, his name and his name alone would stay on the Republican line.

For those of you who want to have weekend reading for the beach, you can read the entire opinion here.

There is a great article in the Akron Beacon Journal about the primary election there that illustrates why we need more post-election auditing before elections are certified. The article is about the race for the county Democratic Party's central committee, which is the ultimate in low-interest races on a ballot. Two candidates claimed that they had voted for themselves as write-in candidates, yet no candidate was said to have received any votes in the race.

A post-election, post-certification review of the ballots turned up the write-in votes on the paper ballots, yet neither candidate will receive a certificate of election since the votes were found post-certification. This kind of case illustrates why more attention needs to be paid to post election auditing.

The 2nd International Workshop on Electronic Voting 2006 is being held in Austria. From the agenda, it looks as though a sizable portion of the conference is being devoted to developments internationally related to Internet voting, especially the experience in Estonia in 2006. You can read more about the 2006 conference here and the press release for the conference here.

Alas, it seems like only yesterday I read a story like the one in the Washington Post today about the Congo elections, only the election was Mexico's. As the Post notes:

Voters eager for peace but fearing new violence trekked to nearly 50,000 polling stations across this sprawling country Sunday to cast ballots for Congo's first democratically elected government since the dawn of independence 46 years ago.

All but the oldest voters for the first time perused a list of candidates and marked their choice. By the end of the day, millions of Congolese had purple thumbs from the indelible ink that indicated they had voted.

Results are days or perhaps weeks away, but initial reports suggested that turnout was heavy. Voters often waited for hours at polling stations throughout a country that stretches across central Africa, from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Great Lakes region.

Polls in some places opened late, but the day passed with few serious incidents amid the heavy presence of U.N. troops and Congolese police. Dozens of people were killed in campaign-related violence ahead of the vote, including three police officers and one civilian outside an opposition rally Thursday.

The problem is that the incumbent is a highly polarizing figure and the opposition is already laying the groundwork for challenging the outcome if they lose:

Many opposition supporters have already contended that the election was rigged and threatened to riot if Kabila is named the winner. Some of the most vocal are those backing Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel leader and one of four vice presidents, who enjoys broad, passionate support in Kinshasa. Many of his supporters say they are confident of his victory and would find it impossible to accept another outcome -- especially if the official winner is Kabila.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, along with the Mexican election situation.

I know many of you wonder why Mike and I often blog international elections. One reason is that there is a lot we can learn from them. However, there is also the fact that their elections are just that much more interesting sometimes. Check out this story from the BBC about the Congo election, complete with a photo of a burning lorry full of voting equipment, set ablaze by election opponents. We don't get that often in the United States!

Even more, consider this:

In the east of the country, people are already flocking to polling stations from miles around.

In the central town of Mbuji-Mayi, anti-election protestors have burned a lorry carrying voting equipment.

On Friday, a soldier loyal to presidential candidate Azarias Ruberwa was killed and two others wounded in a clash with security forces protecting the incumbent, Joseph Kabila, as the two groups met on the way to their respective rallies.

The most serious concerns about the polling process have been in the east, which saw the worst of the conflict in the 1997-2002 civil war and where militia groups remained active until recently.

At least four people were killed and 13 others injured last week during electoral campaigning in North Kivu province, international watchdog group Human Rights Watch reports.