I have been involved in elections for over two decades as a lawyer and an election official, but the democratic process never ceases to impress me. We take so much for granted in this country where our elections, despite lots of complaints, usually run very smoothly without violence or the many other problems and threats that occur in too many other places around the world. For those constant naysayers who criticized George Bush and our policies in Iraq, many of whom have disparaged the very idea that democracy could take root there, I have a report on the Iraq election from on the ground. Perhaps Iraq’s fledgling democracy won’t last and the violence of Islamic jihad will eventually overwhelm it. But then, a lot of people didn’t think democracy would flourish in Germany or Japan either after the end of World War II.

A good friend of mine has been in Iraq for several months helping them get ready for the election that just occurred in a largely peaceful manner. She sent me an email this week about her experiences that I reproduce below. I have only changed information that might identify her or other members of her team that could endanger their security; I also added explanations in parentheses for some of the military acronyms:

Just returned from election coverage. It was a long week with lots of movements. We had 4 people on my election monitoring team — one guy from _________, another American guy who works in _______, the area that we were observing in ______ province, an Iraqi-American interpreter and me. All told, with the military and the personal protection team there were ## people. The election went very well — it was well organized and well run. The Independent High Electoral Commission went to great lengths to make everything transparent and to prevent fraud. Political party and NGO observers were in heavy attendance during all phases of the election, which I think significantly helped keep most of the possible fraud in check. It was very moving to see nascent democracy in action.
Three things stood out for me: first, the number of women who were voting, especially young women; second, seeing the sea of ballot boxes full of voted ballots waiting to be counted; and third, the number of families bringing in their children just to stick their fingers in the ink and to teach them about voting and democracy – the kids were so proud – gives me hope for this country. Many of the women were thrilled to see me and smiled or came over to grab my hand. Seeing the old folks come and vote was also pretty cool.
We rode out to the outer tier of the polling sites with the military in MRAPS (armored personnel carriers). We were in a very conservative area, but people were in general very friendly. We were constantly surrounded by kids and the military was concerned about them possibly throwing rocks at us. They didn’t, but at one site a couple of kids (around age 8) showed up with AK-47s. They shadowed us for a while, but ran away when our protection detail stared them down.
We had intelligence that Al-Qaeda was going to try to blow things up using female searchers wearing suicide vests inside the female search tents — so being the only woman on the team, I refused to go in the tents to be searched. The Iraqi polling place security didn’t seem to have a problem with that, thank goodness, but later I heard that the Independent High Electoral Commission had issued a letter stating that there were to be no searches of international observer teams. We heard of no actual attempts at such a plan, so it must have been bad intel — we took it very seriously though.
We heard of other elaborate plans using smoke bombs, gas and vehicles equipped with VBIEDS (vehicle-born improvised explosive devices); also no sign of that plan during the course of the day. There were bombs set off in several places in Baghdad and a few other cities — mostly small (tragically, “small” meaning less than 50 people were killed) — and some occasional IDF (Indirect Fire).
We wore body armor and helmets, though took off the helmets inside the polling centers. Lists of all the eligible voters for a polling center were posted outside. Voters went through security searches then stopped at a central registration desk to show ID and sign the registration book. They were provided the correct ballot, which was stamped with the official seal, and took their ballot into a secret booth equipped with a pen to mark the ballot. Instructions on how to vote and lists of the candidates by number were posted behind the booths. (There were about 6,500 candidates nation-wide and they were each assigned through a lottery system a number on the ballot.) Once voted, voters took their ballots out to the ballot box, first sticking their index finger in indelible ink and then depositing their ballots.
We went out everyday from March 3rd through the 8th — visited polling sites and the warehouse where they took all the ballot boxes after the election for tabulation. It was great to see so many people so proud that they voted by raising their ink-stained fingers at us in victory. Unfortunately, the last day we were out on coverage was very sad, as two soldiers were killed in an MRAP rollover. It is bad enough to lose troops from enemy fire — sickening to lose them because of accidents and safety lapses. Anyway, other than that, it was a great experience.

I guess the ACLU and the League of Women Voters must not have heard that the Iraqi voters were going to have to show an ID to vote since they didn’t file any lawsuits to stop that commonsense requirement.

My hat is also off to my friend’s husband and the rest of her family for letting her go overseas into a potentially very dangerous situation to try to help the Iraqis put together something we have now had for well over 200 years — a republic. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, let’s hope they can keep it.