The opposition's boycott of the ballot is making it difficult to fulfil a requirement that a full parliament choose a prime minister.Human Rights Watch reported that representatives of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels were extorting money from the Sri Lankan diaspora, mainly in Britain and Canada, to fund a "final war".
The change to the ballot was made with less than half an hour to go before a 2pm deadline for registration of candidates.
Speaking at a rally near Paterson, where he was born, Mr. Lautenberg said his decision to replace Mr. Torricelli on the ballot was made only after consulting with his children.
Today he said the decision to authorize the two votes on the same ballot was made after consultations with the offices of the state attorney general, the secretary of state and the legislative counsel.
Under state law in Washington, where nearly every vote is made by mail, ballots must carry a postmark through Election Day "from anywhere on the planet," said David Ammons, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office there.
It is equally vital that these ballots be made available for independent counting, whether by hand or by computer-assisted projects like the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project.
But Jenny Backus, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said the decisions on whether to accept or reject ballots were made by independently appointed elected officials, not by the campaigns.
Only if they keep showing up with their bodies, and by so doing saying to their regime "we cannot be bought and we will not be cowed," will their ballots be made to count.
Several people said they worried that all the frenetic flapping about butterfly ballots was making America the butt of jokes and smirks overseas.
It is now largely up to the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, to make sure presidential ballot-rigging is made a thing of the past.
