A lot of nations have made it to the polls under worse conditions. Iraq's first election, unless I miss my guess, is going to be a dangerous one for the voters, with Iraq's enemies doing all they can to prevent a democratic system from flourishing. Yet I expect an enormous turnout.

What should be done to prepare for any emergencies is having paper ballots for backups in case of system failures, which in an emergency could even affect conventional card-reading systems, never mind computerized ones.

Personally, I think this is just the Democrats trying to spook constituents, like with the draft flap.