Ballot Box

TAKOMA PARK -- The first time Linda Schade saw an electronic voting machine was on Election Day two years ago, when her name was on the ballot as a candidate for a seat in the Maryland legislature. She knew nothing about the touch-screen system being tested in Montgomery County that day, nothing about the questions that would come up even as it was being expanded into nearly every precinct in the state. She quietly cast her ballot and went on her way. She isn't being quiet anymore. Although Schade lost her race for delegate, she has found herself in what she sees as a bigger role.

CONVENTIONAL wisdom tells us pocketbook issues are keenly important to voters, and financial experts have flooded investors with tips on structuring their portfolios based on who wins the White House. This election season, both of those assumptions are under fire. Economic issues have taken a back seat to terrorism and the war in Iraq in several voter polls. An Oct. 9 Gallup Poll found that a third of voters believe the economy will improve or worsen regardless of who wins the presidency.

TAIPEI, Taiwan - The people of Taiwan narrowly re-elected President Chen Shui-bian a day after an apparent assassination attempt, but his opponent did not concede defeat, calling for an annulment of the results and a recount, and he implied that Friday's shooting may have been manipulated to lift Chen to victory. Early today, in response to challenger Lien Chan's complaints, Taiwan's high court ordered all ballot boxes sealed but stopped short of ordering a recount. In Taipei and other cities, meanwhile, Lien supporters protested the outcome of the election, in which Chen's winning margin was fewer than 30,000 votes out of 12.9 million valid ballots cast.

DETROIT - For just a moment the other day, as Barbara Barnett sat down in a local union office, its auditorium festooned with green and white balloons, a laptop computer became her own polling place. With the click of a mouse, Barnett voted for the Democratic presidential hopeful of her choosing, simply by finding an available laptop, well before many other Michigan voters will cast ballots the traditional way in the state caucuses today. "They make it very easy and accessible," said Barnett, 60, a retired state worker.

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.

What does Barbie have that Raggedy Ann doesn't? Besides the hourglass figure and all those accessories? How cuddly is a Tonka truck? Has anyone ever written the adventures of the Hula Hoop? The shocking fact is that all of these toys have what the beloved rag doll does not: A place in the National Toy Hall of Fame. "We love all toys, including Raggedy Ann," said Kim Baldwin, spokeswoman for the Hall of Fame in Salem, Oregon. "The fact is, she just hasn't made the cut." Raggedy Ann fans are out to remedy this injustice with a grassroots petition drive to influence the voting of the 100 mysterious selectors who, each year since 1998, have decided which toys make it into the Hall of Fame.

MARYLAND ISN'T Florida. No hanging chads, no screw-ups in counting presidential votes. But there's considerable confusion in this state over the best way for citizens to cast ballots. Nineteen counties use optical-scan paper ballots; three use mechanical-lever machines; one uses an updated scanning system; and Baltimore City uses a touch-screen electronic voting device. What's needed is a uniform voting system throughout the state. That's precisely what a special state commission is recommending.

The NAACP could file lawsuits alleging voting irregularities against the state of Florida and individual counties there as early as next week, President Kweisi Mfume said yesterday. Mfume also admonished the U.S. Justice Department for not investigating allegations of voting abnormalities that deprived African-Americans of their right to vote in Florida on Nov. 7. "Why has the Justice Department been so silent?" Mfume asked at a morning news conference at NAACP headquarters. "Why is the Justice Department apparently reluctant to carry out their duties?

VICENTE FOX, the president-elect of Mexico, ended the ruling party's 71-year monopoly on power. Just by winning, he delivered on the first of his promises, the easiest. The polls predicting a dead heat were wrong. Not only was his margin over the ruling party candidate decisive. Combined with the vote for the left-wing alternative, it showed about two-thirds choosing to throw the rascals out. This triumph of democracy should reassure the United States. The two countries are inextricably linked.