On location at Turkish polling site

I went with my in-laws to the polls today to watch them vote.  We joked about me being an international observer, but I said we shouldn’t let anyone know I’m a foreigner, especially an American, because it would only encourage more people to vote for the nationalist parties.

The scene at the local high school resembled polling places in the U.S. except that each classroom had its own voting box for residents of different neighborhoods.  This spread out the crowd and kept the lines from getting too long.

While we were waiting in our classroom, a man (see picture at right) came in to tell the people handing out ballots that there had been complaints about the location of independent candidates on the ballot and that they should point this out to all voters.  Several of the independents were listed in a row underneath the major parties while some were off to the side in a separate section - the designer had clearly taken a page from the Palm Beach County board of elections.

The only other incident happened as we left.  We were exiting the building when a guy leaned his head out a window on the third floor and called to the three policemen sitting on the stoop.  “Police!  Police!  Come to poll booth 2300!”We decided to go back up and check things out but by the time we got there the police were calming down two guys in their 20s and we weren’t sure what had happened.

Results tonight…or tomorrow

Each vote is sealed in an envelope before being placed in a wooden box, so I’d understand if it takes all night to tally the votes (treating paper cuts alone should add a few hours).  Still, most TV channels are going to have election coverage tonight and I’m tempted to watch.  UPDATE:  I’m watching.  And now just two hours after the polls closed, 25% of the votes are already in.  It’s still early, but it looks like the AK Party is going to mop up.