ELECTION FRAUD?

Who could deny that a sizeable number of Iraqis made their way to the polls to cast their ballots in that country's historic election on Sunday?

Bravo to them, but shame on the Bush administration for such twisted logic that turned a hunt for non-existent WMD — remember those? — into a fight for democracy and nation-building.

I call B.S.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz writes:

The 60 percent figure is based on the notion that 8 million of 14 million eligible Iraqis turned out. But the 14 million figure is the number of registered Iraqis, while turnout is usually calculated using the number of eligible voters. The number of adults in Iraq is probably closer to 18 million, which would lower the turnout figure. And the registration figure itself is questionable. Anyone who received a ration card was deemed registered, and there was no effort to remove duplicate names or those who sought extra food rations. Election officials concede they did not have a reliable baseline on which to calculate turnout.

No one seems to mention how the Bush administration, for all its expertise in carrying out massive voter fraud, could possibly be trusted to run someone else's elections honorably.

[Thanks to P.O. for this link.]