IRAN ELECTION UPDATE: HEADED TOWARD A RECOUNT?

Both the Ahmadinejad and Mousavi camps are claiming to have won 60 percent of the vote in today's Iranian presidential election. Via Swampland, here is Joe Klein's report from Tehran:

I've just returned from a day of poll-watching in various Tehran neighborhoods. The lines are long...but I'm worried that the votes might not be counted correctly. In fact, we may be headed for a government-rigged Palm Beach County-style election controversy. Here's the problem:

The candidates are listed by name and by number...and also by code. You vote by writing down the candidate's name and then his...what? Number...or code? No one is quite sure. The leading reformer, Mir-Hussein Moussavi, has the number 4 and the code 777. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has the number 1 and the code 444. So the question arises: If you vote for Moussavi and list his number as 4...have you actually voted for Ahmadinejad? And why on earth have they devised such a complicated ballot in the first place?

A representative of the Guardian's Council, which is monitoring the polling stations, told me at the Hossein Ershad Mosque in North Tehran that none of this mattered. "Only the name on the ballot matters," she said.

Let's hope so.

Klein also has a short Q&A with Mousavi, conducted yesterday. This section really gets to the heart of why his policies differ from those of Ahmadinejad: He's willing to come to the table on nuclear negotiations. John Kerry, chairmain of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has indicated that Mousavi's position is a reasonable one.

Klein: With a change in government, do you think there may be a change in Iran's stance on its nuclear energy program?

Mousavi: We may change our methods. In regard to nuclear energy, there are two issues. One is our right to nuclear energy, which is non-negotiable. The second issue is related to concerns about the diversion of this program toward weaponization. Personally, I view this second part, which is both technical and political, as negotiable. We will not accept our country's deprivation from the right to nuclear energy.

--Dana Goldstein