Indelible ink washes off Afghan voters

Jon Boone, the Guardian's man in Kabul, reports that the indelible ink used to mark the fingers of Afghans who have voted washes off with household detergent.

Hours after polls opened at 7am, members of the Abdullah Abdullah campaign found they were able to remove the supposedly indelible ink that election workers put on the fingertips of people who have cast their ballot.

The ink is meant to help stop double voting, which election officials fear could be widespread, with as many as 3m illegal voting cards believed to be in circulation.

Oops. The same thing happened in 2004 -- election organizers bought the wrong kind of ink -- and it led to lots of double voting. Voters got angry; election organizers vowed never to make the same mistake again. But apparently they just did.