At a news briefing in his home in Kabul, Mr. Abdullah, the president's main challenger, held a whole book of ballots and flicked through the pages to show that every one of them had been marked and stamped, apparently in advance of election day, for Mr. Karzai.
Mr. Martin's other books include "Ballots & Bandwagons" (1964), a study of presidential nominating conventions; "Golda: Golda Meir, the Romantic Years" (1988); "Henry and Clare: An Intimate Portrait of the Luces" (1991); and "Seeds of Destruction: Joe Kennedy and His Sons" (1995).
An expert on electronic voting, Dr. Barbara Simons recently published Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count?, a book on voting machines co-authored with Douglas Jones.
Several polling stations announced they had found ballot books already marked in favour of the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, then it was leaked that the forgeries had been traced to the state printers who produce the ballots.
And every time I sat down to work on my book of Florida ballot-counting jokes, I seemed to be stuck in Chapter 11.
Edwards reckons that, instead of not voting at this year's General Election, like Brand suggested, anyone who doesn't feel represented by any political party should make their voice heard, choosing "None of the Above" – also the title of his new book – by spoiling their ballot paper at a polling booth on 7th May.
The poll books and the electronic ballot scanners do not match, so the paper ballots will be counted by hand.
A few years ago, Mr. Costello said, when the back of one machine was opened two weeks after it was returned to the warehouse, a white rabbit was on one of the shelves that normally hold poll books, supply bags and ballot boxes.
Well, he's been biding his time and reading books -- specifically "Ballots And Bandwagons," which primarily concerns itself with "the brokered 1920 convention that resulted in the nomination of Warren G. Harding".
"Sittin' next to a book and a gun / Ballot or bullet you better use one," he raps on "Down," the album's majestic opener.
