IRAQI ELECTION In U.S., about 12% of expatriates vote

Wintry weather and weekday voting suppressed turnout, coordinator said.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Voter turnout among Iraqi expatriates in the United States during this week's historic parliamentary elections was estimated Friday at 12 percent -- lower than some had expected and well short of the 70 percent participation in their homeland.
More than 28,000 ballots were cast in the United States over three days, organizers said. That was 4,000 more votes than were cast during elections for a constitutional assembly last January. Voting in the United States had been streamlined this time around.
In Iraq, despite fears of violence, participation was unexpectedly heavy in some areas, and some polling places ran out of ballots.
While exuberance ran high among the Iraqi-Americans who did vote -- and some drove through the night to reach polling sites in seven U.S. cities -- some organizers had hoped for bigger numbers.
Fewer voters than expected
"I thought we were going to double the number" from January, said Talal Ibrahim, deputy coordinator for the U.S. Iraqi vote. "I'm happy everything went smooth, but maybe my expectations were too high."
The preliminary count of the Tuesday-through-Thursday vote was 28,486 ballots cast out of an estimated 240,000 eligible Iraqi voters, Ibrahim said.
Ballots will be shipped from the United States to Iraq in coming days, and preliminary election results may be available in Baghdad in less than a week.
In the United States, expatriates voted in or around Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, Washington and Nashville, Tenn. They were helping elect a 275-member National Assembly, which will rule the country over the next four years.
Organizers had expected much higher turnout this time because voters were electing a permanent government, and registration and voting took place on the same day. Last January, some Iraqi expatriates had to travel hundreds of miles to register and then make a return trip to vote.
At least two things worked to suppress turnout, according to Ibrahim: snow and ice in the Midwest and on the East Coast, and weekday voting. Last January, the polls were open over the weekend.