Word: ballot
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...scorching-hot issue of gay marriage, progress is even more certain. The occasional discriminatory ballot initiative notwithstanding, there has been a sea change in public attitudes toward homosexuality since the early 1990s. The mere idea that Will & Grace could have been a mainstream hit 20 years ago is absurd. Today millions of red-state residents enjoy shows like Queer Eye, even if most Americans still aren't ready for his-and-his nuptials. Polls indicate that about half the population supports some form of gay union. And younger Americans (those under 30) are vastly more accepting of gay marriage...
...conclusion in the Nov. 21 runoff. On Monday the Electoral Commission said preliminary tallies showed Moscow's favored candidate, Yanukovych, ahead by 3 percentage points. But immediately there were widespread accusations by Ukrainian and foreign monitors of massive fraud--including voter intimidation, physical assaults and the torching of ballot boxes. Yet the state-controlled media, which had backed Yanukovych through the five-month campaign, were reporting no major violations. Convinced that the election was being stolen from the rightful victor, supporters of Western-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko poured into Kiev's Independence Square to demand that their...
...race that was fought largely over whether Ukraine would pursue Western-style reforms and closer ties to Europe or stick with state control and a tight relationship with Russia, coming that far was a remarkable achievement for Yushchenko. But even if he does ultimately prevail at the ballot box, that doesn't mean the crisis is over. Rather like red-state-blue-state America, Ukraine remains a divided and distrustful nation, with the Russian-speaking, industrialized eastern part of the country backing Yanukovych and the more nationalistic, agricultural west wanting Yushchenko. The two camps are as polarized as the reporting...
Almost before the final votes were tallied, international election monitors raised allegations of widespread fraud. According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which sent in observers to watch the balloting, there were "highly suspicious and unrealistic" turnouts in key Yanukovych areas. Monitors recorded acts of harassment, intimidation and multiple voting and noted that the list of the country's eligible voters mysteriously grew 5% on Election Day. The OSCE investigated and dismissed as groundless complaints of multiple voting and ballot fixing leveled against Yushchenko's campaign by Yanukovych officials. Senator Richard Lugar, who represented...
...feel-good sentiments, Schwarzenegger, who came into office promising to balance the state's books, has yet to implement any major financial reforms, and the bills for past borrowings are coming due. He has tried to use his popularity to go around the Democrat-controlled legislature, but governing through ballot initiatives has its limits. "Arnold is the 'stop the bleeding' guy," says Joel Kotkin, a Schwarzenegger supporter who is an economic analyst at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington. "But I don't know if he is going to do the reconstructive surgery...