Poll fraud Election fraud watchdogs in Afghanistan have ordered recounts at polling stations after finding “clear and convincing evidence” of vote-rigging. The mainly UN-appointed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said returns must be audited where more than 600 votes, representing 100% of “expected” turnout, were cast. New tallies will also made where any presidential candidate received more than 95% of the votes, if more than 100 valid ballots were cast. Widespread allegations of ballot box stuffing and suspicious counts are threatening the legitimacy of Afghanistan's Aug. 20 vote, as the country awaits final results. “In the course of its investigations, the ECC has found clear and convincing evidence of fraud in a number of polling stations,” a commission statement said. Most of the allegedly flawed results had either a larger than expected number of votes cast or a higher than expected proportion cast for a single candidate. More than 720 major fraud charges have been lodged with the ECC. The commission did not say how many tallies would need to be recounted. But ECC officials said they had identified questionable results in Ghazni, Paktika and Kandahar provinces — and the commission is launching investigations in other provinces. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), separate from the ECC, previously said results from 447 polling stations had been thrown out, amounting to about 200,000 ballots. “In some areas, the turnout was higher than the number of ballots we sent to the polling station,” IEC chief electoral officer Daoud Ali Najafi said. A full breakdown of the votes, from each polling station in each province counted so far, is available on the IEC's website. – www.sanfranciscosentinel.com Swine flu Now that our children are back to school, it's a natural concern for parents to ask how we can protect our children against the swine flu epidemic and the seasonal winter flu! When is the swine flu vaccine available? Should we get two shots – one for each flu virus? Should I just keep my child home this year? Infectious disease experts from Seattle Children's Hospital posted a YouTube video to answer the many questions we parents have about the H1N1 influenza virus and its vaccine. Related to this, a preliminary study found that a single standard dose is sufficient to produce an immune response and another study found that protection occurs in 8-10 days after vaccination. The video is great resource and worth watching. I think most of your questions would be answered by this PSA. If not, drop me an e-mail or comment below and I'll try to get the answers for you. – www.blisstree.com/geneticsandhealth __
