Vote Fraud LOL

Reading beyond the Dade County references (made by the special envoy I suppose we must now call Richard LOLbrooke) in this Los Angeles Times piece about the Afghanistan presidential and provincial elections, there are some useful indications of how U.S. officials are anticipating problems with the vote. For instance:

One U.S. official said that it was unlikely that individual attempts to cast faulty ballots — known as “retail” vote fraud — would have much cumulative effect. But he said that “wholesale fraud,” where results are falsified for entire polling sites, could have a substantial effect.

And there’s also this, which isn’t fraud-related, but still:

Military officials said they expected early returns and reports to favor Abdullah, in part because there were more international monitors and journalists in northern Afghanistan, where Karzai’s rival has his political base. But as vote totals from the east and south trickle in, some military officials expect Karzai to capture more votes without garnering the majority needed to avoid a runoff.