Ballot Box

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala - Former dictator Efrain Rios Montt's bid to win the presidency at the ballot box has apparently failed, as partial results show him trailing badly behind two other candidates who will likely meet in a December runoff. With about two-thirds of the ballots counted from Sunday's election, former Guatemala City Mayor Oscar Berger, a pro-business conservative, had 38.4 percent of the vote, followed by center-left candidate Alvaro Colom with 27.6 percent and Rios Montt with 16.9 percent.

While the guilty verdict against former Gov. Robert Ehrlich's ex-campaign aide Paul Schurick is still fresh in people's minds, I'd like to remind readers that his conviction is not a referendum on our political persuasions ("Schurick convicted," Dec. 7). I am not alone in saying that Mr. Schurick's attempt to disenfranchise African-American voters was disgraceful. In my view, the jury responded swiftly and reasonably. Unfortunately, instead of restoring our confidence in the system and reminding us that his dirty campaign style and misconduct have no place in Maryland politics, many people seem to be taking out their score cards.

The Baltimore election board will begin opening more than 3,500 absentee ballots tomorrow at 10 a.m.More than 4,200 ballots were issued for the election. As of late yesterday, 3,564 had been returned to the election office. Of those, roughly 3,100 were cast by Democrats, according to city election officials.In addition, any ballot that arrives in today's mail and that was postmarked by Monday will be accepted.City election administrator Barbara E. Jackson said the counting of the absentee ballots should take less than a day.Baltimore election officials predicted that the absentee-ballot counting process should go much more quickly than it did in last year's disputed gubernatorial election.

Sunday morning I read with interest the editorial, "Misoverestimating Bush," (April 28). It appears to me that both the writer and The Sun's editorial board forgot a valuable lesson of moral guidance that our parents and others in our lives imparted to us: When you point the finger at someone, it is also pointing back at you. The way I like to phrase it is what someone says about someone else, particularly in politics, says much more about the...

CHRISTIANS, IN politics as in evangelism, are not against people or the world. But we are against false ideas that hold good people captive. On Election Day, this nation rejected liberalism, primarily because liberalism has been taken captive by the left. Since 1968, the left has taken millions captive, and we must help those Democrats who truly want to be free to actually break free of this evil ideology. In the weeks and months to come, we will hear the voices of well-meaning people beseeching the victor to compromise with the vanquished.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Susan Sarandon and former first daughter Barbara Bush are among an extremely long list of celebrities set to appear at a fundraiser for Maryland's same-sex marriage law.  The event will be atop the James Hotel in New York City in mid-September. Tickets start at $250.  The Free State is one of four where same-sex marriage is on the ballot this year. No state has ever upheld gay nuptials at the ballot box, however polling (funded by a gay rights group)

ATLANTA -- Hans von Spakovsky is among the GOP hacks who perverted the U.S. Department of Justice - trashing constitutional principles, rewarding partisanship over competence and converting the entire machinery into an arm of the Republican Party. His specialty was suppressing voting by Americans of color, who are more likely to support Democrats; he played a starring role in a nationwide effort to disenfranchise poor blacks, Latinos and Native Americans. Now, Mr. von Spakovsky is seeking Senate approval for a six-year term on the Federal Election Commission, which enforces federal campaign finance laws.

Maryland made history yesterday as the first state to approve gay marriage at the ballot box. The outcome on Question 6 was notable not just for what it will mean for thousands of gays and lesbians whose relationships will now be recognized as equal to those of their heterosexual peers but for what it says about the state of gay rights in America. There is good reason to believe that yesterday's vote was not just a victory for equality but a turning point. Technically, Maryland appeared to be tied for the first-in-the-nation distinction, as a similar measure was poised for passage in Maine on the same day. Another was on the ballot in Washington.

It is one of the peculiarities of Maryland that its state constitution requires the General Assembly to place a binding referendum on the general election ballot every 20 years, asking voters whether they want to convene a constitutional convention. Since the last time the matter was considered was in 1990, that is one of the questions voters will be asked to decide again in November. No doubt this will come as a surprise to most people, who probably are more familiar with the U.S. Constitution than with their state's founding charter.

I agree that Occupy Wall Street needs to grow up to become the true anti-tea party it should be ("Time to grow up," Nov. 17). It needs to copy the highly successful, and savvy David Koch political tactics of the tea party itself. It needs to organize nationally and flood all political town hall meetings from now on with Occupy folks who shout the tea party down. It needs to stage the largest protests on the Mall and the Capitol steps in history, demonstrations dwarfing those of the tea party.