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The coalition and NATO face the complex challenge of establishing a legitimate functioning government in Afghanistan that can withstand the withdrawal of Western forces. To meet this challenge, they might look to earlier British efforts to manage the northwest Frontier along Afghanistan's eastern border.1 Proven methods the British used in the frontier districts could generate a coherent four-step plan for Afghanistan's reconstruction. Indeed, as resources shrink, new, imaginative measures-plus tried and true ones-will be needed to control Afghanistan's geographically dispersed tribes to prevent the reemergence of terrorists or armed insurrection. The northwest Frontier linking central and South central Asia, an...

While the command structure and isolation make Provisional Reconstruction Team Farah unique, the mission is the same: help the Afghan people build a better future. BAGRAM, Afghanistan, Aug. 23, 2005 — The 170-square meter compound stands out against the dusty reddish brown rock of southwestern Afghanistan. It’s a small compound with sparse amenities in the middle of nowhere. A few small saplings dot the compound but offer no shade or relief from the summer heat, which on a day in June topped out at 148 degrees. But the base that houses the Farah Provisional Reconstruction Team is a beacon of...

CEVA [Count Every Vote Act] is an uncommonly mischievous piece of proposed legislation. As National Review’s Byron York has noted, shortly after CEVA’s introduction, its loose voter-eligibility standards are a recipe for electoral chaos. In promoting CEVA, Senator Clinton asserts that “the smooth functioning of our democracy depends on voters having faith in the fairness and accuracy of our voting system, and the Count Every Vote Act is an important step in restoring this covenant.” Congresswoman Jones claims that “this legislation seeks to combat the tremendous voting irregularities that plagued both the 2000 and 2004 elections.” Contrary to Clinton-Jones assertions,...

In April 2004, followers of Iraqi Shi‘ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched a well-coordinated uprising across southern Iraq. While Western media focused on events in Sadr City, Najaf, and Karbala, violence occurred elsewhere as well. A Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) source forwarded the following after-action report regarding violence in the town of Al-Kut, the capital of the Wassit governorate and home to the Ukrainian contingent.The unclassified report, written by a coalition security contractor, highlights dysfunction between regional coalition offices and the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters in Baghdad, as well as tension between diplomats and security officers. The summary faulted a British...

Summary of provisional ballots count - UPDATED 12/2/04 Note: 84 of 88 counties have reported. Current % of provisionals being counted: 79% Current "additional" vote count: Bush +57,203 Kerry +74,078

Monday, November 29, 2004 Summary of provisional ballots count - UPDATED 11/29/04 Note: 73 of 88 counties have reported. Current % of provisionals being counted: 78% Current "additional" vote count: Bush +40,181 Kerry +36,363 Please note, some of the largest counties have still not reported. http://ohvotesuppression.blogspot.com/

Summary of provisional ballots count - UPDATED 11/27/04 Note: 65 of 88 counties have reported. Current % of provisionals being counted: 77% Current "additional" vote count:Bush +36,050Kerry +32,490Please note, some of the largest counties have still not reported. Adams Co: According to elections officials, 192 provisional ballots were okayed out of 258 cast. The results are Bush +173, Kerry +91 Allen Co: Allen County has the region’s most provisional ballots, more than 1,300, and won’t certify its ballot until Dec. 1, the state-set deadline to do so. Ashland Co: According to elections officials, 522 provisional ballots were okayed out of...

The names of thousands of Franklin County voters will soon appear on a web site open for public view. That list will detail whose provisional votes counted and whose did not. Meantime, sorting out which of those ballots are valid remains a tough task. Since the moment that the general election was over November 2, Franklin County Board of Elections workers began trying to verify 14,000 provisional ballots. They were cast whenever a person's name did not appear on registration rolls. Voters insisting they were legally registered got to go ahead and conditionally vote, with their registration status to be...

"The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections voted Monday to reject one out of three of the 24,472 provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election. The bulk of the 8,099 invalidated ballots were determined to have been cast by nonregistered voters or registered voters who cast their ballots in the wrong precinct. Voters received provisional ballots at the polls on Election Day if their names did not appear on the voter rolls... As county elections workers stood watch over a hand truck bearing 10 boxes stuffed with invalidated ballots, an ensemble of lawyers, professors and others who were active in...

Seem Legitimate By MARK WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer COLUMBUS, Ohio - The vast majority of provisional ballots cast in Ohio were legitimate, say election officials who are poring over thousands of presidential election ballots. The ballots that are being rejected are invalid because people simply were not registered, did not give information such as addresses or signatures, or voted in precincts where they do not live. "Some people thought because they had changed their mailing address at the post office, or had changed their utilities, that they had done everything necessary to be eligible to vote," said Nancy Moore, deputy...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Most of the presidential election provisional ballots rejected so far in Ohio came from people who were not even registered to vote, election officials said after spending nearly two weeks poring over thousands of disputed votes. The vast majority of provisional ballots have been legitimate, however. Of the 11 counties that have completed checking ballots, 81 percent of the ballots are valid, according to a survey Monday by The Associated Press. Unofficial vote totals show President Bush (news - web sites) beating Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) by 136,000 votes in Ohio, and Kerry has...

I just finished talking with Ken Blackwell’s office, the Ohio Secretary of State. Here are some official answers to some of the issues of the 2004 Presidential vote count: 1. There are and estimated 155,000 provisional ballots that have been counted. These are still at the 88 county Election Boards and are not official counted by the state until the Election Boards submit them to the SoS. The Election Boards in each County have equal representation from both parties. Provisional ballots must be submitted to the State by 11 days after the election, which would be tomorrow, they will be...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- None of Pennsylvania's five statewide elections last week was close enough to trigger an automatic recount, Secretary of State Pedro A. Cortes said Thursday. A state law, signed in October, requires recounts in any statewide election in which the difference between winner and loser is 0.5 percent or less of the total vote. Unofficial returns show the margins in the two closest races - president and state attorney general - were each more than 120,000 votes, too wide for a still-incomplete tally of provisional and overseas absentee ballots to affect, Cortes said. "Based on the information...

Washington, DC, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Observers watching the counting of New Mexico's 2004 provisional and absentee ballots have uncovered evidence of voter fraud, Opinion Journal said Tuesday. O.J. political diarist John Fund said the Bernalillo County clerk "told media outlets that observers had discovered instances of voter fraud" during the attempt to qualify 18,000 provisional and absentee ballots cast in last week's presidential election. "In counting the first 5,000 provisional ballots," Fund reported, "observers turned up 53 instances of individuals voting more than once. They also found four voters who were dead and dozens of felons attempting to vote....

"I think it's very important for our friends, the Israelis, to have a peaceful Palestinian state living on their border. And it's very important for the Palestinian people to have a peaceful, hopeful future." So spoke President Bush just two days after his re-election, just exactly as news reports were leaking Yasser Arafat's demise.The combination of Mr. Bush's stunning new mandate and Mr. Arafat's near-death condition will lead, I predict, to a quick revival of Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy after months of relative doldrums and to massive dangers to Israel.The doldrums will cease because the Bush administration views Mr. Arafat as the...

Truthfully, I really wasn't gloating these past few days. Probably they caught me smiling and laughing a bit, though. Yeah, I had to go into the city (90% liberal) and visit with the Democrats. Couldn't resist. I wanted to actually see the sad faces for myself, up close and live. Local Democrats have been a glum lot these past few days. Many are still grumbling. On Capitol Hill, Democrats were whining like Valley Girls at a sorority party that ran out of wine, pointing fingers at their leaders and talking about making war against the Republicans. Liberal Hill-Rats must have...

New Mexico's 33 county clerks are required to submit their complete vote totals— including provisional and absentee votes— to the Secretary of State's Office by Nov. 12, Ortega said... State officials are to present their final canvass, or vote count, to the state canvassing board by Nov. 23, Ortega said. Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said Wednesday she wants to count the provisional ballots soon. "I'm making it a priority to count the provisional ballots right away," Herrera said. About 13,000 provisional ballots awaited counting in Bernalillo County, Herrera said. There are three kinds of ballots to be counted within...

Kerry and Edwards have disgraced themselves by not conceding the election to the rightful winner. According to Fox News Website, George W. Bush has 2,794,346 votes; Kerry has 2,658,125 votes, a difference of 136,221. Even IF: provisional ballots are as high as Kerry Campaign Manager Mary-Beth Cahill suggests: 250,000, and IF 90% of those were counted, Kerry would STILL need 60% of those left to catch up to Bush. The Ohio Secretary of State says that provisional ballots are currently at 135,000. According to the League of Women Voters, The Help America Vote Act (HAVA)was passed in 2002 to help...

Kerry camp refuses to concede Ohio. And with 150,000 provisional ballots uncounted, the state could still go to Kerry. Bush has 130,000 lead right now. This ain't over yet...

The time extension in Allegheny county (Pittsburgh) is due to few provisional ballots in polling centers and the number of University of Pittsburgh students trying to vote. Supposedly many aren't on the books. There were so many students that registered to vote that they wanted their own polling place at Pitt. The link is from channel 4 (local ABC station). This is the part of the article that is even worse than extending the polling time. "In several Pittsburgh-area precincts, people who should have been casting their votes with provisional ballots were apparently permitted to use voting machines instead." http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/politics/3884568/detail.html...

In the prosecution of War, even a holy war, a key element is referred to as "preparing the field for battle". In brief, this has, in modern parlance, meant bombing the heck out of the enemy from afar and doing as much to set the physical stage for the coming battle as can be done to your own advantage. This election is contested no less fiercely. How are the Democrats preparing the field for battle? The most robust barrage focuses almost all targeting on a single idea: If Kerry loses, the election was stolen, minorities had their votes tossed out,...

First, voter-registration groups hustled to register more than 600,000 new voters in battleground Ohio, then elections officials found some registration forms with forged signatures and fake names, now the GOP plans to station thousands of recruits at Ohio polling places Nov. 2 to challenge newly registered voters. Already, the Ohio Republican Party has officially challenged the validity of 35,000 voter registrations across the state, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. The challenges cover lists in no less than 191 precincts - many of them in largely black neighborhoods around Dayton. The GOP’s watchdog plan has local voting officials in Ohio ramping...

CINCINNATI - A federal appeals court Saturday reversed a lower court's ruling that Ohio voters could cast provisional ballots on Election Day anywhere in the county in which they are registered. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that a provisional ballot cast outside a voter's home precinct isn't valid, agreeing with Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. Federal law allows people to obtain provisional ballots if they are in the right jurisdiction. Blackwell, a Republican, defines that as a precinct, while Democrats say it's the voter's county. Ohio Democrats on Saturday night decided not to...

Appeals court reverses lower-court ruling on provisional ballots in Michigan 10/26/2004, 5:55 p.m. ET By DAVID EGGERT The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that provisional ballots cast outside the precinct where a voter resides cannot be counted in Michigan. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that said provisional ballots should be counted as long as they're cast in the right city, township or village. Provisional ballots — required in all states for the first time this year — are used when voters say they are properly registered...

Provisional ballots could pose Election Day problems COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Provisional ballots could be the hanging chads of the 2004 presidential election, say critics of Ohio's guidelines for handling those votes. Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell recently issued a directive to county election officials saying they are allowed to count provisional ballots only from voters who go to the correct polling location for their home address. Blackwell has ordered that if residents go to the wrong precinct, poll workers must find their correct precinct and tell them where to go, Blackwell's spokesman Carlo LoParo said. They also may cast provisional...

<p>The news has not been good from Iraq of late. The recent Ramadan bombings and Sunday's tragic downing of a Chinook helicopter is further evidence that remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime and Islamist radicals are still an effective guerilla force. Yet we mustn't let the steady drip, drip, drip of bad news from Iraq keep us from fulfilling the obligations we have assumed there.</p>