Florida's infamous hanging chad has gone forever, but not everyone is convinced the state that made such a mess of the presidential election four years ago can avoid a similar debacle this time around.
In 2000 the state's unreliable old punch-card voting system caused so much confusion that a month of recounts proved inconclusive before George W Bush was eventually declared president by a US Supreme Court ruling.
The main argument raged over whether a hole not fully punched through -- the so-called hanging chad -- counted as a legitimate vote.
In an attempt to avoid a repeat in this November's election, Florida has spent millions of dollars on thousands of new but as yet unproven electronic touch-screen counters to replace the punch-card machines in many counties.
Critics say the new technology is prone to error, vulnerable to hackers and, crucially, offers no paper confirmation of votes to facilitate a manual recount.
"The lack of the paper trail is the most controversial thing about it," said Robert Richie, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Voting and Democracy.
"If there are claims of strange or inaccurate results, there is no way to prove anything. In Florida, where the stakes are so high, it's too early to say that there aren't going to be problems," he said.
Florida's secretary of state, Glenda Hood, has defended the machines.
"Since 2002, we have had the very best in terms of technology available and have held hundreds of successful elections," she said. "It's a great disservice to create the feeling that there's a problem when there is not."
But her reassurances have done little to appease the doubters. In elections for Florida's House of Representatives last month, one district's touch-screen recorders registered 127 blank votes in a count decided by a majority of 12.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not