War Reports: Afghanistan The international audit of election results disqualified a significant number of votes so as to necessitate a run-off between incumbent Hamid Karzai and his chief rival Abdullah Abdullah.
After three days of counting, the audit teams of election workers, international and Afghan observers and agents for the two presidential candidates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, had only made their way through 435 boxes of ballot papers.
That could include a power-sharing arrangement between the government and the opposition, a transitional government to serve until a new election is held, or a comprehensive audit of the election results with both sides agreeing to accept the winner.
When the machines weren't malfunctioning, they produced errors at a stunning rate: one audit of the election discovered that in 72.5 percent of the audited machines, the paper trail did not match the digital tally on the memory cards.
Stein's move came amid growing calls for recounts or audits of the election results by groups of academics and activists concerned that foreign hackers may have interfered with election systems.
In the next few days, the Afghan Election Commission will be ready to announce the final result of the intensive two-month long audit of the election.
Senator Ron Wyden, for instance, recently introduced The Protecting American Votes and Elections Act of 2018, which would require every state to use election machines with paper ballots and mandate risk-limiting post-election audits (the "gold standard" of election auditing).
But all three of the systems can be used only under rigorous security procedures, including audits of the election results.
The United Nations carried out an audit of the election and determined that although there had been fraud on both sides, Ghani had won.
Unasur held an emergency meeting on the eve of Mr Maduro's inauguration to insist on an audit of the election result.
