Iraqi ballot paper design

Although more than a year ago now here's an interesting story about the Iraqi ballot papers.

The 2006 elections in Iraq presented ballot designers with a unique problem. More than 200 parties or individuals registered to be listed on the ballot, a fact that created a typesetting dilemma for the one-page design. But each party or individual who registered also had to supply a logo by which they could be identified by illiterate voters.

Some logos were turned away, including a drawing of a rifle, a picture of a mass grave, and a representation of a Koran surrounded by a halo.

The result is a very involved ballot; a sample of the 2005 ballot is shown here. More than 72 percent of eligible voters registered so they could put their own very personal "logos"-their fingerprints-on record so they could vote.