Iraq population breakdown and turnout estimate.

[kuozzman]

Any updated or more specific information would be appreciated.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/iz.html

Population:
25,374,691 (July 2004 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 40.3% (male 5,198,966; female 5,039,173)
15-64 years: 56.7% (male 7,280,167; female 7,094,688)
65 years and over: 3% (male 357,651; female 404,046) (2004 est.)

Ethnic Groups:
Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian or other 5%

Religions:
Muslim 97% (Shi'a 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian or other 3%

The KC Star reported today that "In addition, Iraq's Sunni Muslim population, which makes up about 20 percent of the nation's 15 million eligible voters, may heed the call of its clerics and boycott the election. The clerics contend that there is too much violence for their supporters to feel safe going to the polls."

So I've read from several sources that estimates are currently that 8 million people voted-1.5 million doing so from outside of Iraq.
So that leaves 6.5Mil out of 15Mil= 43.33% turnout.

"The election in Iraq was a resounding success"

-Chimp 1/30/05

Headlines today:

-Iraqi Turnout Vindicates Bush's Vision, Rice Says (Bloomberg)

-Iraq polls close amid reports of high turnout (Financial Times)

-Iraq poll turnout high (Reuters)

-Iraq poll turnout at least 72 pct (Reuters)

-Voter turnout in Iraq reflects an electorate eager to grasp democracy, U.S. pollsters say (San Francisco Chronicle)

-High Turnout In Iraq Poll Despite Attacks (Sky News)

-Iraqi voter turnout higher than predicted, UN says (ABC News)

[lynintenn]

1. sounds like they have a mandate

[Zeke]

10. Ohhhh.....

NICE!

I can't stop laughing.

A perfect thing to say---wish I'd thought of it!

[MadisonProgressive]

35. Huh? Is he going out with Ann Coulter again? What's Laura think?

[oblivious]

2. Read the third story down: Nobody even knows who they are voting for.

Confusion surrounds Iraq poll turnout
...Iraqis in the Sunni Muslim city of Samarra stayed home on Sunday, too frightened or angry to vote in the election.

"Nobody came. People were too afraid," Madafar Zeki, in charge of a polling centre in Samarra, said.

According to preliminary figures provided by a joint US and Iraqi taskforce that safeguarded the vote, fewer than 1400 people cast ballots in the city of 200,000.

The figure includes votes from soldiers and police, most of whom were recruited from the Shia south...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B49A6A7B-9FE7-4C65-BA06-11461071FEAA.htm


Iraqis show mixed response to polls
In war-ravaged Falluja, nearly all residents stayed at home despite the presence of five polling stations. Only one man was reported to have voted.

Meanwhile, the head of the local council in Samarra said no citizens would vote because of the poor security situation.

"Nobody will vote in Samarra because of the security situation," said Taha Husain, the head of Samarra's local governing council.

No employees turned up at polling centres in Samarra and police were not to be seen on the streets, an agency correspondent reported.

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


AMS critical of Iraq elections
"The voter goes to the polling stations not knowing who he is voting for in the first place. There are more than 7700 candidates, and I challenge any Iraqi voter to name more than half a dozen."

He also criticised the huge number of groups on voting lists in which it was virtually impossible to know who was standing for election and what the candidate's background was.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F1149ACC-43EE-4BA6-AD8A-AC9D62290514.htm


Summary of attacks on election day
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/15F23DED-17B3-4F3F-A1DA-A1E502E1DB74.htm

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bookman]

20. Right...

...the only thing worse would be, er, FOX.

[aikido15]

27. Same thing was reported by Dahr Jamail

you know, that journalist that is actually THERE, unembedded and independent, therefore believable.

[janetle]

3. Not all women of Iraq are joyful...

...as we are led to believe.

"Iraq Women find Election a Cruel Joke"

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/209809_iraqiwomanvote.html?searchpagefrom=1&searchdiff=2

"Having for years enjoyed greater rights than other Middle East women, women in Iraq are losing even their basic freedoms -- the right to choose their clothes, the right to love or marry whom they want. Of course women suffered under Saddam. I fled his cruel regime. I personally witnessed much brutality but the subjugation of women was never a Baath Party goal. What we are seeing is deeply worrying: a reviled occupation and an openly reactionary Islamic armed insurrection taking Iraq into a new dark age....

The new norm -- enforced at the barrel of a gun by Islamic extremists -- is to see women as the repository of honor and shame, not only on behalf of family and tribe but the nation."

[Hissyspit]

6. This Should Be On The Home Page

Post it as a second topic and I'll nominate it.

[FreedomAngel82]

8. In the MSM of course

they are claiming it a huge success and all that bull. I was watching a little bit of MSNBC today about this and of course saying it was a huge turnout and all that stuff. :\ I just hope they are happy enough to leave!

[ClintonTyree]

23. It is a little suspicious, isn't it?

Sunday MORNING, FAUX was reporting a 57% turnout. OK, we know full well FAUX is duty bound to lie their asses of the the bush administration. Throughout the day, this 57% number kept popping up on other MSM outlets as well. It's almost as if they were...................following a script. There's no doubt in my mind that KKKarl delivered the official White House projection the night before, so they'd have SOMETHING to go on for their Sunday morning bullshit sessions. So transparent and so sickening. Total control of the media. When will we invade ourselves so we can enjoy the "freedoms" so enjoyed by our captured countries?

[RaleighNCDUer]

37. Up is down, down is up.

Original poster's estimate was 43% -- an exact flip of the Rovian 57%. Interesting.

[theresistance]

11. I can never understand these sorts of reports that

are contradictory. On the one hand they say how good things were under Saddam Hussein, but them always qualify by saying, no but he was still a SOB and I witnessed so ans so brutality etc. I seen many reports like these. Then there are the many tales of torture and brutality that have turned out to be fiction...

[RaleighNCDUer]

38. No contradiction, there.

It's just a sign of how bad things are, that makes life under a brutal dictator look good.

Also, an indication of what the Iraqi people will settle for to get some stability back. This is not going to result in a 'new age of democracy for the middle east'.

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. I posted a thread about this yesterday

Why are the women and men separated to vote?




http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1546008&mesg_id=1546008

[matt819]

4. Fun with numbers

Let's assume the population figures are correct. That means there are 15,136,552 Iraqis over the age of 15. Voting age is 18. Just for shits and grins, let's take out 1.5 million Iraqis from this mix -- those 15, 16, and 17 years old. That brings the registration-eligible Iraqis to 13,636,552.

If your numbers are right -- 8 million voters, 1.5 million of them expats -- then 6.5 million Iraqis voted in Iraq. That's 47.6%. I have a little hearburn here, though, since NYT and BBC reported last week (probably same source) that only 255,000 Iraqi expats registered to vote. So where's that 1.5 million figure coming from?

Then there's the number of Iraqis registered to vote. I scanned a few articles through a Google search and was unable to find a number of Iraqis registered to vote in Iraq. Maybe that number is around somewhere, maybe not. But take a closer look at the articles asserting 70+% turnout and see if they mention numbers.

Of course, there's virtually no critical reporting on the MSM sites. Just sweetness and light, flag of freedom and liberty and all that.



Then there

[kurt_cagle]

5. Bush is GOOD at getting turnout

After all, he managed to get several counties in Ohio to vote for him that had far more voters than registered voters.

I'm far more inclined to suspect that a significant proportion of that 6.5 million votership, processed through US military hands and with absolutely nothing in the way of oversight, probably consisted of virtual Iraqis who of course believed whole-heartedly in everything that the Americans are doing. Keep in mind as well that all of the reporters who would be likely to be allowed to witness such voting have been effectively pinned in their hotels for the last several months.

Iraq will get the government that the US feels it is supposed to get, and absolutely nothing different. Of course, if this isn't a totalitarian dictatorship, I can't see much difference.

-- Kurt Cagle

[trogdor]

33. The 70% figure was based on REGISTERED voters.

Not necessarily eligible voters. Still, it's lots better than we usually do for a national election. Sad, ain't it?

[RaleighNCDUer]

39. You may have it there.

A 70% turn out of registered voters. A significant number of whom registered as ex-patriates and voted absentee.

[matt819]

49. Let's watch our own terminology

First of all, show me somewhere the number of registered voters in Iraq, and then I'll buy into the 70% figure (and only then after getting accurate reporting of the number who voted, not the initial press reports).

Next, significant hell. According to the MSM, there may have been more than 1 million expats eligible to register, but only 255,000 did, and I haven't seen any reports of the number of those who voted.

If 6.5 million Iraqis voted in Iraq, that 255,000 figure represents only an additional 3.9% -- significant? Who the hell knows, but let's not be loose with our language.

And, finally, expat is short for expatriate. It's not ex-patriate or ex-patriot, or expatriot. A little pet peeve of mine, having been one.

[struggle4progress]

45. Maybe 20% of eligible expats registered and voted.

Perhaps most of those who actually took the trouble to register then voted. But actually it's all blowing smoke since nobody has any figures that aren't guesses:

... About 14 million people were eligible to vote in Iraq, and 1.2 million overseas voters were able to cast ballots in 14 countries ...
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1107126609539&call_pageid=970599119419

... A spokesperson for the International Organization of Migration, which organized absentee balloting, says more than a quarter of a million Iraqi expatriates cast votes in 14 countries, including Canada ... http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/01/30/expatiraqvote050130.html

... No firm official figures were available, but Iraqi election authorities said preliminary estimations were that about 8 million people, or roughly 60 percent of registered voters, may have taken part in the voting yesterday. No figures on turnout among Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim, Sunni Muslim, and Kurdish communities were immediately available ...
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/01/4c5074b9-3ae0-4708-81d0-c2002bcee0ed.html

15.2 (= 14 + 1.2) E6 eligible voters and an estimated (without any real basis) 8.25 = (8 + 0.25) E6 votes cast is about 54% turnout. Since Rove's Boys are padding the numbers, this gives an upper bound.

[USA_1]

7. Iraq Vote

While Bush and his allies gloat over the election, it has FAR more serious implications than they may want to believe as it could well lead to civil war and even to regional war:





Robert Fisk: The Shia Will Inherit Iraq
Saturday, January 29 2005

Shias are about to inherit Iraq, but the election tomorrow that will bring them to power is creating deep fears among the Arab kings and dictators of the Middle East that their Sunni leadership is under threat.

The Shia Will Inherit Iraq

This Election Will Change the World, But Not in the Way the US Wanted

By ROBERT FISK
The Independent

Baghdad.

Shias are about to inherit Iraq, but the election tomorrow that will bring them to power is creating deep fears among the Arab kings and dictators of the Middle East that their Sunni leadership is under threat.

America has insisted on these elections--which will produce a largely Shia parliament representing Iraq's largest religious community--because they are supposed to provide an exit strategy for embattled US forces, but they seem set to change the geopolitical map of the Arab world in ways the Americans could never have imagined. For George Bush and Tony Blair this is the law of unintended consequences writ large.

Amid curfews, frontier closures and country-wide travel restrictions, voting in Iraq will begin tomorrow under the threat of Osama bin Laden's ruling that the poll represents an "apostasy". Voting started among expatriate Iraqis yesterday in Britain, the US, Sweden, Syria and other countries, but the turnout was much smaller than expected.

The Americans have talked up the possibility of massive bloodshed tomorrow and US intelligence authorities have warned embassy staff in Baghdad that insurgents may have been "saving up" suicide bombers for mass attacks on polling stations.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Moderator]

50. USA_1

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source
and provide a link
to the news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[delhurgo]

9. I'm gonna wait and see who was elected and see

what their Constitution looks like, and if they have some sort of Bill of Rights - and also how much of a role Islam plays in the new government (it shouldn't play any at all, imo). Thats one of the major causes of the problems in Arab countries, they don't separate church from state. I was glad to see the people vote though; the election seemed to work pretty well. But now comes the important part: if they draft a decent Constitution, maybe the country won't be perfect right away, but they'll have a solid foundation to build on for the future.

[Zeke]

13. The "Election" went well?

Did you read any of the previous posts or threads
detailing numbers of voter turnout, other news sourcses
chronicling low vote turnout, and on and on?

Do you still believe in WMD?

Dude?!

[delhurgo]

15. I said that I was going to 'wait and see', that the election 'seemed'

like it went pretty well... from the video I see on the news and from early estimates, as high as 60% (and not by some anonymous guy posting on DU). I am a little concerned about low turnout by Sunnis. But, we'll know better how well it went in the coming days as the votes are counted. I think there are people that want to over-hype things and their are people who want to believe the worst. The truth will come out if people would just be patient and wait a little.

[PapaJoe]

17. So True

Tis more than one election, a Democracy for to make. Still, I wish them success, I hope at least one good thimg comes of this debacle.

[WI Independent]

18. I agree - all this vote really does is create a sort of...

Constitutional Congress. It's really more of a psychological milestone than a real "voice of the people". If they create a non-Islamic Law based Constitution they might be on the right track (though with a long way to go).

[WCGreen]

30. It created more.

It created a semi autonomous Parliament in the Kurdish region that must have our "allies" the turks, a little auspicious of the survival of colonial Iraq.

Remember, modern Iraq was cobbled together by the British to suit the imperial needs of the British Empire, not the local needs of the residents. It is, and we shall see if time proves me wrong, a cauldron of rebellion. Right after Saddam was toppled, there was talk of establishing three or more separate autonomous regions that would be over seen by a weak central government. Oil revenues, in this scenario, would go mostly Shia and Kurdish states with the central region of modern Iraq being the donut hole in the center.

I'm glad there was not as much violence as was hyped, can't help but thinking this was on purpose, a standard MO of the Bushies, and even if the TO wasn't as astronomical as Fox claims, all in all it was a good thing for the average Iraqi to get out and vote.......

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. Only 39 people killed

not counting the 10 on the C130 that got shot down and 97 injured. Not bad if you find killing and violence an acceptable part of day to day life.

[Bucky]

28. Apparently Iraqis are gonna have to "wait and see" who they elected too

Most of the Iraqi assembly candidates remain anonymous. The votes went to straight party slates and result in pure proportional representation--exactly the same formula Israel has used to keep its kooky religious zealots out of the halls of power.

I agree that this is the one chance both for the Iraqis to bring peace to their country and start to shut out the terrorists who are running amok over there and for the US to begin to construct a reasonably humane exit strategy. I believe in gradual steps toward democracy. But this was a particularly inauspicious beginning.

[RaleighNCDUer]

40. A decent constitution means nothing.

One of the most high-minded, even-handed constitutions ever written was for the Soviet Union. A lot of good, it did.

Don't count on separation of church and state. The Islamic world does not have the history of Western Europes rennaisance and reformation, the 'enlightenment', that gave rise to that concept. The only Arab nation that ever had a successful separation of church and state was...

Saddam's Iraq.

It's not about who was elected. It's who survives being elected.

[theresistance]

12. We have to wait for the truth

to come trickling through the immediate headlines and deception. It always takes a while...Did PoxNews lead the charge again by claiming election "success"? al la 2000 election?

[ClintonTyree]

24. Oh yes.................

very early Sunday morning they were saying what a resounding success it was with 57% registered Iraqis voting. They read it straight from the official White House propaganda release.

[spooked911]

14. They can have a day of good headlines-- but from here it just gets worse.

Either Shiites are elected (bad for the US), or we rigged the election and the whole thing is a sham. Either way, lots of people are going to be upset about this-- and the insurgency ain't going away either. I don't see a happy ending.

[CTPatriot]

16. Same As it Ever Was

"Either Shiites are elected (bad for the US), or we rigged the election and the whole thing is a sham. Either way, lots of people are going to be upset about this-- and the insurgency ain't going away either. I don't see a happy ending."

That's my take on it too. I also think that Bush and the neocons have no intention of giving up our 14 permanent military bases or the goldmine that Iraq provides for US dominance over the region's (and world's) oil resources. Doing otherwise would completely contradict the defense strategy that PNAC has been advocating for so long, and that seems to be the script we are following with disastrous consequences.

So, regardless of who "wins" the election (which I am as sure will be rigged as was our own election), the US presence will continue to antagonize Iraqis and the insurgency will continue "same as it ever was".

[liberal_patriot_md]

21. Iraq election sham

While I am glad that there was an election as it means a better chance that we get out and me and my buddies don't have to go back, it is hard to look at it and call it anything but a sham, a potemkin election if you will.

7700 candidates, hundreds of open seats, and scores of political parties -- and oh yeah, 1 month of campaigning in areas still rife with violence and unrest. Where we have complete control of the airwaves and newspapers. And international election monitors feel it is too dangerous to go out and actually monitor anything. No reason to expect anything but a resounding success, right?

shrub and his cronies set the bar so low that even if one vote was cast it was success. The real test is to see what happens if the people's choices don't get elected and people start crying fraud or if those elected start speaking out against us, we'll see how long they are left in power.

Everyone forgets that saddam held elections too, at least he had the courtesy to let everyone know it was rigged.

[ophelia1027]

22. right on

Seriously. Our country is a glaring example of the possibility of "elections" amidst tyranny... So Bush thinks he created a "Mini-Me" of Iraq. Let him wallow in his delusion (what else CAN we do?). If he thinks he's getting his way, it just might hasten us the hell out of there.

[newyawker99]

51. Hi ophelia1027!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[DoYouEverWonder]

29. I don't believe that 25 mil number

In 2002 the numbers were

Population:
24,001,816 (July 2002 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 41.1% (male 5,003,755; female 4,849,238)
15-64 years: 55.9% (male 6,794,265; female 6,624,662)
65 years and over: 3% (male 341,520; female 388,376) (2002 est.

http://www.nationbynation.com/Iraq/Population.html

Since then a lot of people have been killed, but even more have left the country. The 2004 number should be lower not higher.

[Bucky]

31. The 15 million voters estimate is a bit high, unless 15 year olds can vote

Assuming Iraqis can vote if they're 18, not 15, then the 15 million figure is a too little high. By the June 2004 figures, there are 10,238,145 Iraqis under age 15 and 15,136,552 Iraqis 15 or older. I'm using these figures:

0-14 years: 40.3% (male 5,198,966; female 5,039,173)
15-64 years: 56.7% (male 7,280,167; female 7,094,688)
65 years and over: 3% (male 357,651; female 404,046) (2004 est.)

Some quick and dirty math (without factoring in infant mortality) tells us that each year-age group under 15 in Iraq has 682,543 people in it. I'll rough in infant and child mortality rates to say that there should then be about 650,000 people per year-age group among the older teens in that 15 million figure. That means that just under 2 million of that 15 million isn't eligible to vote.

In other words, we have a base voting figure of 13,186,552 voting age adults in Iraq. All the detainees and prisoners and shut-ins might take a bit of a bite out of that number, but a normal democracy ought to get most of them out to vote. That 6.5 million figure is just barely over half of the total.

But honestly, shouldn't we count the 1.5 million expatriated Iraqis? I imagine that they are counted among the 25.3 million Iraqis in that 2004 census.

But more probably, some of them are and some of then aren't. Given the high stakes involved in this election, that 8 million votes still only represents 60.6% of the voting age adults of Iraq, with that percentage probably nudging down below the 60% mark as you start to add in the ex-pat Iraqis not figured into the base census number.

Given the massive voter boycott by the large Sunni minority and the fact that some of the provinces of Iraq couldn't vote at all, that <60% figure still represents something of a victory for those who favor having the Iraqis vote. But you have to include in that that the election is a complete disaster for the Sunni minority. They're very likely to be screwed in a big way in the coming year.

.

[TR Fan]

32. Where did you "read"

that 1.5 million Iraqis voted outside of the country. Most news sources say only 10% of eligible Iraqi expats voted. See the following pre-election registration numbers for expats:

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB7KSNBE4E.html

Additionally, this article notes that only 280,000 Iraqis registered abroad.

http://sify.com/news/international/fullstory.php?id=13659031

If your numbers are correct and the 10% estimates are correct, then there must be 15 million eligible Iraqi expats, which seems a bit high for a country with a population of 25 million.

Again, I'd be interested in knowing where you "read" this. Because, if the Iraqi expat vote is insignificant, as most sources say it is, the actual turnout would be 8m/15m = 53%.

[PeaceBWichU]

34. Election Schmelection

How can anyone call this a real election when a large constituency has been denied the opportunity to vote?

[newyawker99]

52. Hi PeaceBWichU!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Mugsy]

36. "Turnout" is one thing. An accurate count is quite another.

You gotta have faith in Dubya. Who knows better how to screw up an election than he?

I like the fact that photos of "long lines" is an indication of success. I'm sure the people in Ohio would agree, don't you?

If anyone other than Allawi <sp?>, the Bush installed puppet and the only candidate whose name most Iraqi's will even recognize at the polls, wins, I'll be shocked.

"Turnout" is one thing. But if the winner is already pre-ordained, it doesn't really matter "how" many turned out, does it.

[janetle]

41. To me, this is another Bush "Mission Accomplished"

The big headlines are all positive for Bush this morning--like this one:

"High Turnout a Win for the Whitehouse"
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002165548_iraqanal31.html

But if you actually read the article, experts do not agree with this.

"Analysts also noted that the Bush administration initially resisted the idea of holding direct elections this soon and succumbed only under pressure from Iraq's most powerful cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani.

'It was Sistani who demanded one-person, one-vote elections,' said Juan Cole, an Iraq expert at the University of Michigan. 'So to the extent it's a victory, it's a victory for Iraqis. The Americans were maneuvered into having to go along with it.'"....

" 'They realize that the quickest way to get the United States out of Iraq is to create a new government,' said Henri Barkey, former State Department policy planning staffer now at Lehigh University. 'Not to vote would mean a continuation of the status quo. So the election is not a vindication of U.S. policy.'"...

" 'We shouldn't get hysterical with hyperbole, we shouldn't have a 'mission accomplished' moment,' said James Zogby, president of the Arab-American Institute and an analyst with Zogby International, a New York-based polling firm. 'Our polls show that the divisions are quite deep.'"

[janetle]

42. A Religious Duty to Vote?? Hmmm!

I thought this little synopsis, "Winners and Losers" was quite interesting. We do not know what we are in for:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002165576_winlose31.html

"Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani: Iraq's highest-ranking Shiite cleric forced elections, made voting a religious duty and assembled the most powerful bloc of candidates. He won, even though his Iranian citizenship barred him from voting."

[dandrhesse]

43. My stats are from the Britannica Almanac 2005 edition

Total Population (2003) - 24,683,000

Age breakdown (2000) -

Under 15 42.1% = 10,391,543

all other groups combined 57.2%= 14,291,457
15-29 30.4%
30-44 15.6%
45-59 7.4%
60-74 3.5%
over 75 1.0%

Sunni Muslim population (2000)
34% = 4,859,095

So without Sunni's the total eligible would be 9,432,362 or less
depending on the set voting age.

So on the face of it you are starting out with almost 5 million less than the 14 million figure given on reports.

I realize the population figures in the atlas are over a year old but they have also lost a lot of people in the war as well.

[Iggytop]

44. I could be wrong but

You are going off total Population not reg. voters... If you use that logic We would have about a 25% turn out in the last election it being the one with the most votes ever.

please correct me if I'm wrong.

[VOX]

46. Chimp's state of the union address is Wednesday--how convenient is that?

It'll be nothing but sunshine pumped up the collective a** of the American people.

Iraq election also to occur before Super Bowl Sunday next weekend.

[cindyw]

47. Bad time to be old in Iraq I guess. No social security crisis there.

Seriously, life i span is seriously low there. I wonder in that 15-64 group how many are 40-64?

[DUBYASCREWEDUS]

48. ISN'T IT AMAZING..

That the media knows the turnout in the Iraq elections; that our government knows the turnout in the Iraq elections - but no one in this country can count votes in the U.S. Presidential election in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, New Mexico, etc. I wonder, were there exit polls in Iraq and were they reliable? Isn't it amazing that all these years exit polls in the U.S. were dead-on with the distinct exceptionof the last 2 presidential elections. What are the odds????