Reminds me of home...what do Ehud Barak and Katherine Harris have in common?

So - around a month ago, Tzipi Livni was elected head of the Kadima Party (beating her opponent by the skin of her teeth). Since Kadima is the current ruling party in the Israeli Government, she would essentially become the Prime Minister, replacing Ehud Olmert who resigned amid debilitating scandals. Livni only had to form a coalition in order to maintain the government. Shas, the Orthodox-Mizrachi party, held out in joining her coalition reportedly over three key terms: 1) billions of shekels for their school (yeshiva) system, 2) control of the Education Ministry in the next cabinet, and 3) a commitment from Livni not to relinquish control over any part of Jerusalem in future peace talks. Mostly on 1 & 2, Livni did not budge. She refused to "give in to bribery".

Since she was unable to form a government, President Shimon Peres officially announced new national elections, which will be held in February. Livni is using the "anti-bribery" case as a prime example of why she should be the one to lead the country. Shas's spiritual leader, the fiery/offensive Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, yesterday proclaimed that Shas would double its seats in the Knesset from 9 to 18.

Likud, under former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, is expected to fare quite well in this election. It is still early, but many of the early polls have Likud and Kadima in a dead heat (however, some polls are skewed across the spectrum). Since all parties are going to be contending for seats in the Knesset (the party with the most seats then can work to form a coalition), parties are holding primaries.

Well, wouldn't you know it - Labor's (under former Prime Minister Ehud Barak) 50,000 voting members were scheduled to vote in party primaries a couple of days ago. And lo and behold - the electronic voting machines failed!! So, they are being held today. However, Labor is having a big prooblem - most of their election volunteers had taken days off work, etc. in order to work the election a couple of days ago. Many are unable to volunteer this time around. Plus, voter turnout is expected to be very adversely affected. How do you say 'debacle' in Hebrew? We may have had a crazy time with the 2000 butterfly (or as they say, 'parpar'), but it gives me a great feeling to know that Florida is not alone in bungling ballots. Onwards and upwards!