Iraq election commission revises turnout estimate upwards as expat vote set at 93% News
Iraq election commission revises turnout estimate upwards as expat vote set at 93%

[JURIST] The deputy head of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq Monday revised upwards the latest estimate of turnout in Sunday's Iraq elections, telling AFP that "We still don't have a final number but we can say it was better than expected. The final percentage could be between 60 and 75 percent." Late Sunday Baghdad time a Commission spokesman had suggested a 72% turnout, but the Commission later said that was a guess, and that a figure closer to 60% might be more accurate. AFP has more. Meanwhile the International Organization for Migration in Geneva announced Monday that the worldwide turnout of Iraqi voters over the three alloted days of out-of-country polling [Iraq Out-of-Country Voting Program official website] that ended yesterday was 265,148 – 93% of the 280,000 expatriate Iraqis registered, although only 23% of the 1.3 million Iraqis believed to be living abroad. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.