72% Iraqi turnout?? How overinflated is this? Compare it to Ohio.

[sunnystarr]

It's certainly heartwarming to see the courageous Iraqi's turning out to vote and I applaud every single one of them. I was curious, so I looked up the figures. While I heard on C-Span that there were 12 million registered voters, USA Today stated 14 million http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-01-27-ballot-basics_x.htm .

72% of 14 million is 10,080,000 Iraqi's that reportedly voted

There were 5,220 polling stations. Voting took place from 7am to 5pm.
10,080,000 divided by 5220 equates to 1,931 Iraqi's voting per polling place.
That equates to 193 voting per hour or 3.2 voting per minute.

So we're supposed to believe that 3.2 Iraqi's per minute went through 111 choices for national and 62 choices for regional (as reported by CNN). Kurds had a 3rd ballot for a Kurdish National Assembly.

Makes one wonder why Ohio with 11,477 precincts handled 5,481,756 votes (http://election.cbsnews.com/election2004/state/state_oh.shtml)
from 6:30am to 7:30pm (both Iraq and Ohio let voters in line vote, with some exception in Ohio, so for the exercise only polling hours used for comparison).

5,481,756 divided by 11,477 precincts (precincts were consolidated but I can't locate the number of polling places in Ohio for 2004 but voters had to vote in their precinct) equals 478 voters per precinct.

478 voters equates to 43 voters per hour or .71 voters voting per minute.

While the number of choices on the ballot differed, the amount of choices would safely be under 10.

I thought the comparison was very telling. Maybe Iraq should teach Ohio how to get voters through without the long lines and length of time. It was reported that in Iraq voters had to wait about an hour to vote. Imagine that!! Considering that all election workers were totally new and all voters had never voted in a democratic election this is totally amazing!

edited to add link

[meow2u3]

1. I heard it was 72% of REGISTERED voters--and only 10% registered

So 7.2% of all Iraqi adults are going to decide who's "elected" puppet president of Iraq.

[w4rma]

7. Also, how many voters are expats? Remember that many voters voted from

outside of Iraq.

[sunnystarr]

8. That's what they reported as registered in Iraq.

A: About 14 million people in Iraq and 255,600 expatriates who have registered to vote in 14 countries are eligible. In Iraq, there are more than 5,000 polling stations. Voters must be at least 18 years old and be Iraqi citizens or be able to show that they are entitled to Iraqi citizenship. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-01-27-ballot-basics_x.htm

[TR Fan]

12. Virtually all Iraqis in Iraq...

were automatically registered to vote, as per here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41044-2005Jan1.html

<snip>...
Because Iraqis do not have to take any steps to register to vote -- food rationing accounts serve as voter rolls -- requests for corrections are essentially the only gauge of voter involvement in the registration process for the Jan. 30 election.
...<snip>

[sunnystarr]

16. Thanks for that info ...

I wondered how and when they registered. So they really didn't register at all ... oops another surprise lol.

[MSgt213]

2. We supposed to believe? Doesn't matter they have said it now without

any proof. The retractions will be small little blurbs without much attention paid to the fact they jump the gun.

[noamnety]

4. They've already retracted it

72% in some areas, 4% in others, the 72% may have been based on optimism rather than actual numbers.

[acmejack]

3. counterpoint

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/674D4BC3-BDA3-41AF-9D40-B80D79F812F9.htm

[FrenchieCat]

5. High Iraqi voter turnout is a myth......

created by manipulating what "is" "is". This PR myth was promogated by America's Pravdas Fox/CNN/MSnbc/ABC/CBS/etc, etc, etc....

In ramadi, a city of 600,00-700,000 Sunnies, only 150 had voted, 5 hours after the polls had opened.

It was reported that the military was saying that even a 5% turn out would be good in that war ravaged part of Iraq....then they suddently upped to feeling that 20% would be a success (must have gotten the Pravda memo).....then today, they were saying that any votes would be great.

Here in the US, Voter turnout was so low, they had to turn away poll workers.

I think that High voter turnout, and now the heralding of this 72% number is typical for our media. They manipulated anything that moves.....and they'll say anything and depend on not enough viewers checking alternative news sources to find out the real truth.

The media will continue to do this, and that is what scares me the most. They lie and don't seem to think twice about it. They really don't give a f*ck. That's what happens when you let corporations own the news.

Certainly there may have been high turnouts in certain areas....but methinks, and as General Clark had said a couple of days ago....if the 73% turning out (based on some Republican polling company...who knows how they gathered those numbers) is from predominately one faction of the Iraq population, then we must see what will happen after this election. Disenfranchised people are not the kind that are going to help the occupation army against insurgents. It would be like having an election here, in the U.S., where 80% of Democrats votee, and 10% of Republicans voted (don't I wish).

[RafterMan]

13. Exactly

The turnout is not the issue -- it's what the people who won *actually do* with their power, particularly what they do with regard to those who didn't/couldn't vote.

As Clark said, this is only a step, and only potentially in the right direction. Media interpretations are useless here. We can only watch what develops. The best that can happen is that populist elected shiites will come in contact with populist insurgent sunnis and hash out an agreement.

My fingers are crossed.

[sundancekid]

6. after sunday shows it's already been lowered to 60% estimate and...

[Stew225]

9. Thanks for posting. I think it's

quite impressive and (I hate the term "spot on") right on the money.

[rumpel]

10. thanks for the detailed info. US MSM's credibility again quickly being

flushed down the toilet.

[rumpel]

11. thanks for the detailed info. US MSM's credibility again quickly being

flushed down the toilet

on edit for some reason the posting duplicated. sorry

[LisaL]

14. Think about this-they had to ink their fingers so they wouldn't vote

twice. Which to me means they don't even have voter lists and pretty much anybody can come in and vote. And they don't record who voted either, otherwise, why ink someone's finger? And now they know how many % actually voted? 62 %, 72 % -those are all numbers they must have pulled out of thin air.

[bluedog]

15. Today in Iraq....Sunday.Jan 30, 2005

Note to Readers

It’s apparent that today is a particularly violent and bloody day across Iraq. The list of incidents posted below is incomplete and inaccurate due to the confusion generated by such overwhelming violence. Anyone who has ever been in a combat command post will tell you, “The first report is always wrong.” Obviously, the insurgents have long prepared to disrupt this election and the US and Iraqi security forces have long prepared to prevent disruption. I don’t think we’ll get a clear picture of what is happening today for at least a few more days.


War News for Sunday, January 30, 2005

Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed by mortar fire at Sadr City polling station.

Bring ‘em on: Two Americans killed, four wounded in mortar attack on US embassy in Baghdad.

Bring ‘em on: Explosion reported at polling station in Basra.

Bring ‘em on: Suicide bomber kills one Iraqi, wounds four at Baghdad polling station.

Bring ‘em on: One US Marine killed fighting in al-Anbar province.

Bring ‘em on: Eight suicide bomb attacks reported at Baghdad polling stations.


http://dailywarnews.blogspot.com/

***************keep an eye on this blog.........they tell it the way it is

[TheWebHead]

17. actually the rate would even have to be higher than that

because reports I saw on CNN suggested that only 2/3 of the polling places were actually open. I figured that based on the number of polling places, they'd be lucky to get 3 million voters no matter what the turnout unless they had Wal-Mart sized voting locations.

[skremmmer]

18. iraq voteres!?!

hi, ya u supposed 2 bleive evry thing that "idot son of an asshole" tells u~! it was just 2 perfect,(kinda like a "hollywood" moive~~)every body eagar?? evrybody reg!?!everybody fingerprinted?! yaaaaaaaaa and jsut like the most famous B.S. lines (da check's n da mail, i wont cum n ur mouth,..) if it sounds 2 good 2 b tru it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dark]

19. Pelsae laren to wtire in the Eglnsih laguagne so we can usdtenanrd you. nt

[canberra]

20. they used paper ballots, not machines

Iraqis used proper paper ballots at temporary cardboard booths, so 10-20 people could vote at once, unlike in Ohio where people had to line up for their turn on one of the very few machines in each precinct. No problems with breakdowns either.

Nevertheless 72% turnout is a bit high considering Baghdad and the so-called "Sunni triangle" had very low turnout.