Texas poll shows dead heat among Dems

(CNN) -- It's all tied up in Texas.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll suggests the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination between Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois is a statistical dead heat in Texas, which holds primaries March 4.

In the survey, out Monday, 50 percent of likely Democratic primary voters support Clinton as their choice for the party's nominee, with 48 percent backing Obama.

Take your pick of headache remedies, my friends. Or perhaps just drop the alka seltzer directly into the vodka. That works, too.

And here's some really insightful commentary from the experts:

"One reason the race appears to be tight is that Texas Democrats are having a hard time choosing between two attractive options," says CNN polling director Keating Holland.

Apparently Keating Holland holds a Doctor of Tautology degree.

Pakistani voters reject Musharraf —and U.S. policies

It looks like Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf may be on his way out, following elections held in that country yesterday. Although finals votes have not been counted, there did not appear to be any tampering or intimidation by the ruling party, as had been feared by many. From the New York Times:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistanis dealt a crushing defeat to President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections on Monday, in what government and opposition politicians said was a firm rejection of his policies since 2001 and those of his close ally, the United States.

Almost all the leading figures in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the party that has governed for the last five years under Mr. Musharraf, lost their seats, including the leader of the party, the former speaker of Parliament and six ministers.

Official results are expected Tuesday, but early returns indicated that the vote would usher in a prime minister from one of the opposition parties, and opened the prospect of a Parliament that would move to undo many of Mr. Musharraf’s policies and that may even try to remove him.

In parliamentary elections, of course, voters vote for the party rather than the candidate. So in theory, Musharraf could decide to try to hold onto the presidency even if his party is not in the majority. However, most observers believe he knows that would be a futile — perhaps even deadly — decision.

“Musharraf should be preparing a C-130 for Turkey,” Mr. Ahsan said, referring to Mr. Musharraf’s statements that he might retire to Turkey, where he spent part of his childhood.

Two politicians close to Mr. Musharraf have said in the past week that the president was well aware of the drift in the country against him and they suggested that he would not remain in office if the new government was in direct opposition to him. “He does not have the fire in the belly for another fight,” said one member of his party. He added that Mr. Musharraf was building a house for himself in Islamabad and would be ready soon to move.

Now, let's see how Dana Perino and the rest of the White House gang spin this one ....

Maryland to switch to optical-scan voting machines

That sound you hear is the collective sigh of relief of the voters of Maryland:

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The state will abandon the touch-screen voting machines that have sparked years of protests and replace the system with devices that permit a manual recount.

Maryland purchased the machines in the wake of the 2000 Florida election. They have been criticized as unreliable and susceptible to tampering.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed $6.8 million to buy optical-scan machines, which can read paper ballots filled in by voters with pencil or pen.

Election reform advocates praised the move, saying voters currently have no guarantee that their ballots would be properly counted by the state's ATM-style machines, which were manufactured by Diebold Inc.

"Our machines can easily be rigged in ways that are undetectable," said Robert Ferraro of SAVE our Votes, a nonpartisan group. "We were anxiously waiting to see if the governor put the money in his budget, and he did, so we are very pleased. Otherwise, we would have been stuck with a paperless system."

Unfortunately, they won't be available until 2012 ....

Meanwhile, back in my hometown ....

I was looking for some local elections information this morning to post on my other blog. I was hoping to post polling hours, names of candidates, etc. But a quick google provided this top story from the Baltimore Sun: “Police raid elections warehouse”

So much for the integrity of the elections process:

Baltimore police raided the city's elections warehouse yesterday and arrested an employee who they say illegally copied hundreds of movie DVDs and then stored some of them at the facility, the same place where voting machines and other election supplies are housed.

You can read the rest of the story here.