From the NY Times:

BAGHDAD — Thousands of soldiers, police officers, hospital patients and prisoners cast ballots on Wednesday as part of early voting in Iraq’s provincial elections.

At least one act of violence accompanied the voting. Two police officers guarding a polling center south of Kirkuk were killed by gunmen who fired at them from a passing car, according to an official from the Ministry of Interior who spoke on condition of anonymity. The gunmen escaped, the official said.

Overall, however, the voting appeared to go smoothly, Iraqi election officials said.

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More than 14,000 candidates are running for 440 seats on provincial councils in 14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces. The election will be delayed in Kirkuk Province, a troubled region where much of Iraq’s oil reserves lie, and in the three provinces of Kurdistan, a semi autonomous region.

A Iraqi soldier shows his ink stained finger given after he voted ahead of the scheduled elections this Saturday on January 28 2009 in Basra, Iraq. All Iraqi security forces, hospital patients and prison inmates were allowed to vote today ahead of the elections on January 31. Many areas in Iraq are preparing for provincial elections which are being closely watched as a way of evaluating how peaceful and stable the country now is. British forces, who are restricting all vehicle movements during the election period, are due to withdraw from Iraq’s second city Basra later this year and the results will also determine how quickly the number of US troops serving in Iraq can be brought down too.

About 615,000 people, most of them employed by Iraq’s security forces, were eligible to vote Wednesday, three days before Saturday’s election. Government officials said the early balloting would help ensure that security forces would be on duty to protect polling stations on Saturday, when about 14 million more Iraqis are eligible to vote.

JANUARY 28: An Iraqi hospital worker casts her vote on January 28, 2009 at the Medical City hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. The Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) opened the polls on January 28, 2009 for members of the Iraqi security forces, detainees and hospital patients. According to IHEC, 700,000 are expected to vote today for the country’s provincial elections in more than 1600 poll stations across Iraq. The general voting is scheduled on January 31st.

A veiled policewoman casts her vote into the ballot box at a polling station in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad January 28, 2009. Soldiers, police, prisoners and displaced people began early voting on Wednesday ahead of Saturday’s provincial election in Iraq, which will determine the political landscape across the country as U.S. forces withdraw. The election is the first in Iraq since 2005, and holding it peacefully will be a test of Iraq’s tenuous stability as it emerges from years of sectarian war.

 An Iraqi police officer has his finger incked after casting his vote at a polling station in the iraqi city of Balad Ruz some 50 kms east of Baghdad on January 28 , 2009. About 614,000 Iraqi police, soldiers, prisoners and hospital patients will vote in the first stage of the country’s provincial election, the nation’s first ballot since 2005. Iraq’s provincial councils are responsible for nominating governors who lead the administration, finance and reconstruction projects in their areas, while the security forces remain under Baghdad’s control.

Members of the Iraqi National Police force wait in line to vote early January 28, 2009 in Baghdad, Iraq. The Iraqi government opened the polls early to members of the Iraqi security services such as the police and army, most of whom will be working security on election day itself, January 31. Tens of thousands of troops across Iraq participated in the vote.