First, here at home: The New York Times publishes an editorial on Diebold and The Business of Voting: Paper trails are important, but they are no substitute for voting machine manufacturers of unquestioned integrity.

Diebold is inching ever closer to mainstream news coverage. Speaking of questionable voting systems….

Washington Post: Sunni, Secular Groups Demand New Vote.

If the vote in Iraq was not rigged, then so far the early analysis isn’t pretty at all: Independent: Iraq’s election result: a divided nation:

…The first results from the parliamentary election last week show the country is dividing between Shia, Sunni and Kurdish regions.

Religious fundamentalists now have the upper hand. The secular and nationalist candidate backed by the US and Britain was humiliatingly defeated.

The Shia religious coalition has won a total victory in Baghdad and the south of Iraq. The Sunni Arab parties who openly or covertly support armed resistance to the US are likely to win large majorities in Sunni provinces. The Kurds have already achieved quasi-independence and their voting reflected that.

The election marks the final shipwreck of American and British hopes of establishing a pro-Western secular democracy in a united Iraq.

…Iran will be pleased that the Shia religious parties which it has supported, have become the strongest political force.

…”People underestimate how religious Iraq has become,” said one Iraqi observer. “Iran is really a secular society with a religious leadership, but Iraq will be a religious society with a religious leadership.”

…The break-up of Iraq has been brought closer by the election. The great majority of people who went to the polls voted as Shia, Sunni or Kurds – and not as Iraqis. The forces pulling Iraq apart are stronger than those holding it together.