Some polling stations reportedly even ran short, for a time, of the indelible ink used to mark voter pinkies.

WSJ: Mary O'Grady: In Elections, Honduras Defeats Ch��vez

He recounts how those turned away because their names were not on the voters' roll begged for hours to be allowed to dip their fingers into ink, fearing retaliation if they could not display the mark proving they had voted.

ECONOMIST: Zimbabwe

Mark Kurlansky is eating a steaming plate of chipirones en su tinta (squid in its own ink) at Marichu, a quaint, brick-walled Basque restaurant near United Nations headquarters in Manhattan.

FORBES: The wealth of a nation