VOTER FRAUD IN AFGHANISTAN?

Whoa, voter fraud in Afghanistan?? Will there BE an election in the 21st century that isn't plagued with concern over its legitimacy??? Americans are supposed to be the experts in this stuff, but in the past five years we've screwed up royal across the board. Florida in 2004, in 2002 there were states that tested the electronic ballot boxes only to discover that they failed. We had the recall debacle out here in California. Apparently back in 2001, the election in Haiti went well, but how long did that last? Now we've got Afghanistan, the 52nd state (Canada is the 51st). What's going on in Afghanistan? Check it out:

Afghanistan's historic presidential election turned sour Saturday when all 15 candidates opposing U.S.-backed interim President Hamid Karzai withdrew in the middle of voting, charging the government and the United Nations with fraud and incompetence.

In the end, faulty ink -- not Taliban bombs and bullets -- threatened three years of painstaking progress toward democracy. The opposition candidates claimed the ink used to mark people's thumbs rubbed off too easily, allowing for mass deception.

So, Afghaniland has their own version of "hanging chads" now.

This kind of thing fills me with a LOT of confidence as we are just short of four weeks away from the official election for President of the world--I mean, America. Also, don't forget the 53rd state, Iraq, and their elections in January of 2005.

DEMOCRACY RULES!!

Read more about the Afghan election at the New York Times.