Though Iran’s Guardian Council requested and received an extra five days to make their final determination regarding their investigation into the disputed elections earlier this month, council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei says the council has found ‘no major irregularities’ in the election.
The claim comes as something of a shock, considering earlier this week spokesman Kadkhodaei confirmed that voter turnout in 50 cities was over 100% and suggested that roughly 3 million votes were potentially affected by this.
Kadkhodaei sought to address this concern by noting that there was no regulation forcing Iranians to vote in their home cities and suggesting the over-vote could be explazined by “travelers.”
All three opposition candidates had filed election complaints, but the dispute over the excess voter turnout was reported by Mohsen Rezaei, a conservative candidate with close ties to the Iranian military. Rezaei announced today that he was withdrawing all complaints, citing the “security situation” since the vote. Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the two reformist candidates, vowed to continue their opposition to the contested vote.
Iran normally has cities with over votes. While this may seem odd to Americans it is not unreasonable. In the United States there are multiple positions on the ballot. Therefore it is important that a voter casts his ballot in the constituency of his residence. Iran in its presidential election has only one office up for decision. There is no electoral college requiring residency based voting. Therefore, a person votes where he is. If a city has a ring of suburbs, many workers will vote near their place of employment, resulting in an over vote in the core city and an under vote in the bedroom communities. Over votes stick out. Under votes do not. This is acceptable because they are not voting for a core city Congressman, State Senator or State Representative. Iran does not have America's elaborate system of absentee ballots because their electoral system does not require it. Such flexibility results in some numbers that seem odd when applied to the American model but which are reasonable given the Iranian model.
Quite correct.
Also in Iran you do not have to register for the election (as we do in the US). You simply have to show up with your Birth Cert (which has picture of the holder) or if out side of Iran to show up with your Passport.
Therefore anyone can show up at any location and vote.