Freethought & Rationalism Archive

George Oilwell · 02-06-2005, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Carl Bialik, who writes the Numbers Guy column for Wall Street Journal Online, calls this "a great question ... how the journalists can know these numbers – when so many of them aren't able to venture out all over that country." Speaking to E&P on Wednesday, Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post – one of the few mainstream journalists to raise questions about the turnout percentage – referred to the "fuzzy math" at the heart of it.

Those with long memories may recall the downward-adjusted turnout numbers that followed violence-plagued elections in South Vietnam in 1967 and in El Salvador in 1984.

And one thing we now know for sure: the early media blather about a "strong" Sunni turnout has proven false. Adding a dose of reality, The Associated Press on Wednesday cited a Western diplomat who declared that turnout appeared to have been "quite low" in Iraq's vast Anbar province. Meanwhile, Carlos Valenzuela, the chief United Nations elections expert in Iraq, cautioned that forecasts for the Sunni areas were so low to begin with that even a higher-than-expected turnout would remain low.

In a rare reference to an actual vote tabulation, The New York Times on Thursday reports that in the "diverse" city of Mosul, with 60% of the count completed, the overall turnout seems slightly above 10%, or "somewhat more than 50,000 of Mosul's 500,000 estimated eligible voters."

Media Mangles Iraq Vote
You won't read this on Faux, CNN etc.
First the gushing euphoria, then the reality check.

ex-idaho · 02-06-2005, 10:36 PM

I was making this point to some in my office the other day. How is it that we could possibly know the turn out was 72% less than 24 hours after the vote but not have even the vaguest idea who the winner was?

The whole vote was a sham. You can't have a democratic vote without knowing who's voting and no census was done so there is no way the vote was legit.

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02-06-2005, 10:36 PM	#2
ex-idaho Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Spudtopia, ID Posts: 5,315	I was making this point to some in my office the other day. How is it that we could possibly know the turn out was 72% less than 24 hours after the vote but not have even the vaguest idea who the winner was? The whole vote was a sham. You can't have a democratic vote without knowing who's voting and no census was done so there is no way the vote was legit.

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