Polling sites will be set up in U.S. for Iraqi citizens

CHICAGO – Iraqi citizens in the United States are getting a taste of the hope – and the logistical headaches – created by the upcoming Jan. 30 elections in Iraq with the news that five U.S. cities will serve as polling sites.

The International Organization for Migration said Wednesday that it will organize registration and election facilities in the five cities as part of an ambitious, last-minute effort to let expatriates vote in at least 11 countries.

Iraqis in the selected cities – Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville and Washington – view the plan as finally sating their thirst for democracy.

But Iraqi immigrants in other areas are angrily complaining that their distance from polling sites threatens the legitimacy of the election, as voters must both register and cast ballots in person.

Jeremy Copeland, spokesman for Iraq’s Out-of-Country Voting Program, said election organizers realize the logistics are not perfect. The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq chose the IOM, a Geneva-based intergovernmental group, to run the election less than two months ago.

“We’re trying to include as many people as possible, given the limited time frame and resources that we have, to make this as clean and transparent as possible,” Copeland said. “This is an Iraqi election. Even though we could not be completely inclusive, they felt like it was important to include this ‘expat’ vote.”

Election organizers said they focused on the largest Iraqi population centers abroad by consulting census data and meeting with immigrant leaders.

To participate in the election, which will select representatives to Iraq’s National Assembly, residents must be at least 18 and be eligible for Iraqi citizenship.

That includes naturalized U.S. citizens and the U.S.-born children of Iraqi citizens, said Copeland, who estimates that up to 240,000 U.S. residents might be eligible.

By casting his vote, Aladin Khamis, who lives in Chicago, said he will prove that his country’s history of oppression has finally been wiped out.

Khamis, 52, said he never had a chance to vote before leaving Iraq in 1977. Since then, the elections under Saddam Hussein’s rule have not been exactly fair in that “the winner would get 99.9 percent,” he said.

“I think we were all born to live free. When you vote, that means you are free,” Khamis said.

Because no voter lists exist for the Iraq election, U.S. residents will have to register between Jan. 17 and Jan. 23 at any of the five U.S. voting sites.

Voters then will have the chance to challenge names on the registration lists if they believe aspiring voters are not eligible.

The voting will take place Jan. 28-30. Copeland expects each city to have multiple voting locations, but organizers have not finalized sites yet. The ballots will be offered in Arabic, Kurdish and English.

While some Iraqis in the United States had hoped to vote by mail or the Internet, Copeland said organizers did not have enough time to set up a system that would work.

Some Iraqis, meanwhile, are beginning to grumble that their areas were not included among the polling sites.

Bishop Sarhad Y. Jammo of the Chaldean Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle said he is outraged that his community in San Diego, part of Iraq’s Christian minority, will have to travel to Los Angeles twice – to register and to vote.

Jammo said he is considering urging Iraqis in San Diego to boycott the elections.

“If you treat certain people unfairly, then you have a very serious concern about the validity and legitimacy of this representation,” Jammo said. “I don’t see why when you see a defect, you don’t fix it.”

Copeland said organizers hope to set up polling sites in Orange County, a shorter drive from San Diego. But he acknowledges hurdles for pockets of Iraqis in places such as Texas, Nebraska and Kentucky.

“Some of these people have waited their whole lives to take part in this election,” Copeland said. “They feel left out and they feel hurt. It’s very understandable.”