Voting-Equipment Technology and Other Reforms Post-2000 (last updated September 15, 2002) (back to top) Voting-equipment technology and ballot design are just two of many areas that drew attention in the wake of the 2000 presidential election and the confused results in Florida. Other areas include how to handle eligibility questions, whether Election Day should be a nationwide holiday with more uniform polling hours, and whether states should wait longer before certifying their results. Florida began requiring more advanced technology that allowed for immediate review and for voters to redo an incorrectly processed vote through the Florida Election Reform Act of 2001. Among other things, the act encouraged and helped finance the use of new voting-equipment technology, including touch-screen systems that, unfortunately, caused problems during the September 2002 primary between Bill McBride and former Attorney General Janet Reno. Florida Governor Jeb Bush extended polling hours due to the problems, and McBride ultimately won by a narrow margin (44.5 percent to 43.9 percent).
- Punchcard systems (used by 37.3 percent of registered voters). Voters use machines to punch holes in cards; these cards serve as ballots which can be reviewed.
- Optical scan systems (used by 24.6 percent of registered voters). As in standardized tests, voters fill in the rectangle or circle corresponding to their choice of candidate, and a computer records the darkest mark within a given set as the correct choice or vote; these cards serve as ballots which can be reviewed.
- Mechanical lever systems (used by 20.7 percent). Voters pull down selected levers to indicate choices; the machine records the votes but there is no actual ballot. These machines are no longer made and are being replaced by computer-based optical scan systems or direct-recording electronic systems.
- Direct recording electronic (used by 7.7 percent). As with a ATM screen, voters enter their choices into electronic storage; there is no actual ballot.
- Paper ballot systems (used by 1.7 percent). Voters record their choices by marking the boxes next to the choice; these cards serve as ballots which can be reviewed.
- Whether Election Day should be a national holiday, such as Veterans Day, and whether uniform nationwide voting hours should be established. Such measures arguably would make it easier for states to easily hire poll workers and hold elections in accessible buildings.
- Whether states should have mandatory waiting periods before they can certify election results. This would allow for more time to count ballots and to resolve disputes, though the media probably could and would still report probable winners.
- Whether felons' voting rights should be restored, in part to re-enfranchise a significant portion of the African-American population. Felons' eligibility to vote is up to state discretion, and only nine states (Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming) denied the right to vote to convicted felons even after they have completed their sentences (Delaware does so for five years afterwards). All states except Maine and Vermont deny the right to vote to offenders serving a prison sentence, and most deny the right to vote to individuals on parole or probation.
Afghanistan (last updated April 24, 2002) (back to top) Even before the events of late 2001, Afghanistan had known political chaos and violence for almost three decades, centered around a decade-long Soviet invasion that ended in 1989 and left the country to even more years of civil war and tribal warfare. In 1996, the Taliban took control of the country and implemented a government based on an extreme form of Islamic interpretation. The Taliban was sanctioned by the international community for its harboring of terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden even before the September 11 attacks, and it was finally driven out of power in November 2001. Since the fall of the Taliban, the international community has begun to rebuild Afghanistan. In December 2001, the international community established an interim administration headed by Hamid Karzai. In June 2002, Afghan citizens will convene an emergency "loya jirga," chaired by former king Mohammad Zahir Shah, to decide constitutional matters and select the form of a transitional government. There are no plans to restore the monarchy. Slightly smaller than Texas in terms of land size, Afghanistan is located in the Near East at the crossroads between the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Central Asia. The country is largely Muslim (85 percent Sunni Muslim, 15 percent Shi’a) and has long been divided amongst ethnic groups, the largest of which is the Pashtun ethnic group (about 38 percent of the population). The country is extremely poor and its economy depends on basic agriculture; in recent years, however, its biggest trade has been as the world’s largest illicit opium producer. Afghanistan has had a troubled time since the 1970s and especially since it was caught up in Cold War politics. For the past two decades, it has had the distinction of producing the world’s largest-ever single refugee caseload each year. About a third of the country’s population fled during the Soviet invasion, and though millions have returned since then, about 2.6 million refugees remained in exile in early 2000. The 40-year reign of Mohammad Zahir Shah, who took the throne as king when he was 19 years old after the assassination of his father, ended in 1973, when his cousin took power and established a short-lived republic. King Shah went to exile in Italy, staying there for the next 29 years until he finally returned in April 2002 to help create a new government for Afghanistan. The new republic that replaced King Shah lasted only a few years before it was itself overthrown in 1978, this time by a communist party. The Soviet Union then sent troops into Afghanistan in December 1979 to support the communist regime, thus beginning a decade-long struggle which ultimately emboldened the resistance (supported and trained by the United States and other countries) and sent about a third of the population fleeing the country as refugees. Negotiations to end the war culminated in the 1988 Geneva Accords, and the last Soviet troops withdrew in February 1989. The country then soon broke down into tribal warfare, which lasted for years and left a power vacuum that the Taliban filled in 1996. The Taliban, which literally means "religious students" and which refers to the educational background of the movement’s leaders, controlled about 90 percent of the country at its peak. Taliban leadership, many of whom received training to fight against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, adhered to the Hanafi school of Sunii Islam and attended Deobandi-influenced seminaries in Pakistan; the Deobandi school seeks to purify Islam by discarding supposedly un-Islamic accretions to the faith and re-emphasizing the models established in the Koran and the customary practices of the Prophet Mohammed. The Taliban was ruled by Mullah Omar, Head of State and Commander of the Faithful, and a ruling council known as the Shura. The Taliban emerged as a power in 1994 and, helped by Pakistan, took the capital city of Kabul in September 1996. Overcoming the traditional segmentation of the various Pashtun tribes by emphasizing Islamism and targeting non-Pashtun ethnicities, the Taliban then imposed a strict list of regulations on the Afghan people and enforces these regulations through a religious police force under the control of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice and through Islamic courts. These restrictions had their greatest impact on women. Upon taking power in 1996, the Taliban immediately forbade girls to go to school and banned women from working outside the home, which had far-reaching impacts on health care services and education; some of these restrictions were reportedly eased in 1999. The Taliban also imposed rigid lifestyle restrictions on women, restricting them to their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative and requiring them to wear a burqa (a garment covering the body from head to foot with a small, lace-covered opening for the eyes) or risk a beating. The Taliban also banned music, movies and television on religious grounds. In 1998, the Taliban prohibited television sets and satellite dishes in order to enforce the prohibition, though this regulation was reportedly not strictly enforced. Regulations covered many aspects of daily life, including the length of a man’s beard. According to Taliban regulations, men must have beards extending longer than would a fist clamped at the base of his chin or face beatings or imprisonment for 10 days. The United Nations condemned the Taliban government several times, beginning shortly after it came to power. In particular, the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions and a military embargo against the country once the Taliban began supporting and harboring terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization. During the Taliban’s rule, the United Nations continued to recognize the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the anti-Taliban movement. Isolated from the international community, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was just one of a handful of conservative Islamist states and was recognized by only three countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. And even though Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was ruled by a fundamentalist Islamist government, there were some crucial distinctions between it and its neighbor, Iran. While both countries are fundamentalist Islam, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was largely Sunni Muslim and entirely under religious rule, whereas Iran is largely Shia Muslim and has a secular government that has some independence from the totalitarian religious structure. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the United States moved to attack al-Qaeda forces located in Afghanistan and to drive out the Taliban government that supported them. U.S. and British forces began air strikes in early October 2001, and began ground attacks later that month. By late November, the Taliban had lost control of Afghanistan’s major cities to the Northern Alliance forces. In December 2001, Afghan leaders meeting in Germany signed an agreement to establish a broad-based, multi-ethnic, post-Taliban government, beginning with an interim administration headed by Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai and culminating with emergency council meetings chaired by the former king. Sources: CIA World Factbook entry on Afghanistan, available on-line here. Annual country reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch, Crisis of Impunity: The role of Pakistan, Russia, and Iran in fueling the civil war, available on-line here. Annual reports by the U.S. Department of State on human rights practices and on international religious freedom, available through the department and its archives here. United Nations Security Council resolutions and reports regarding Afghanistan are available here. A U.S. State Department chronology from September to December 2001 covering U.S. activity in Afghanistan is on-line here. An April 11, 2002 special briefing on the rebuilding of Afghanistan is on-line here.