Randall Hill / Reuters

Horse Gall precinct clerk David Smith, right, greets voter Paul Hiers at the home of Vincent Smith in Varnville, S.C., on election day. The polling place for the U.S. presidential and local elections is located in the den of David Smith's father's home. It used to be in the family garage but was moved to the den 30 years ago.

Randall Hill / Reuters

Horse Gall precinct clerk David Smith talks with poll workers Evelyn Moody, left, and Charlene Smith on election day in his father's den.

John Flavell / AP

People sign in to vote Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012 at the Elizaville precinct in Elizaville, Ky. The precinct is located in a general store built in 1821 and has 524 registered voters.

Toby Talbot / AP

Nancy Tassey casts her ballot next to the wood stove on Election Day at the Town Hall, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Calais, Vt.

Also on PhotoBlog:

• Home sweet...voting station?
• More stories about the 2012 election

Slideshow: Election 2012

Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

Campaigning with Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, voting and election results.

Launch slideshow

Roberto Schmidt / AFP - Getty Images

A man and child ride a donkey along a road leading into the small town of Baharak in Northeastern Afghanistan in the late afternoon on October 6, 2012.

The town is located in a fertile valley which is fed by the Kokcha river and is ringed by rugged arid mountains to the north and south. The province of Badakhshan, which shares borders with Tajikistan, China and Pakistan, is mostly inhabited by ethnic Tajik, Uzbek and Kyrgyz people.

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Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Matthias Schrader / AP

A young Bavarian herdswoman drives her beasts through the landscape during the return of the cattle from the summer pastures in the mountains near Bad Hindelang, southern Germany, on Sept. 11, 2012. At the end of the summer season, farmers move their herds down from the Alps to the winter pastures in the valley.

Matthias Schrader / AP

Herdsmen rest during the return of the cattle from the summer pastures.

Matthias Schrader / AP

A young herdswoman watches over the cattle.

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Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Joseph Smith walks down a road with a basket of food that was handed out by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier Mobile Food Pantry on June 19 in Deposit, N.Y.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Deposit, N.Y. at the Southern Tier of New York borders Pennsylvania and is predominately rural. It has been struggling for decades with both high unemployment and chronic levels of poverty. The area was once a manufacturing base for major American companies.

Once a manufacturing base for U.S. companies, the Southern Tier of New York covers nearly 4,000 predominately rural miles, and according to the 2010 Census, 15.72% the population live at or below the federal poverty level.

To help families in need, the mobile food pantry was introduced by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier in 2007. A converted beverage truck delivers fresh produce, dairy products, and other grocery items to more than 100 families in a two-hour distribution period.

-- Spencer Platt, Getty Images photographer

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Spencer Platt / Getty Images

People line-up with boxes and baskets for food at a distribution point by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier Mobile Food Pantry on June 19 in Deposit, N.Y.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

People recieve food at a distribution point that was handed out by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier Mobile Food Pantry.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

People line-up to receive food at a distribution point that was handed out by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier Mobile Food Pantry on June 19.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Dominick Aldridga, 8, stands with members of his family at a distribution point by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier Mobile Food Pantry.

Balazs Mohai / EPA

Children wait for an eye examination in the kindergarten of Lunca de Sus in Transylvania, Romania. Volunteer doctors travel around Hargita county twice a year to examine and treat children in need at local hospitals and schools. Pictures taken between May 7 and May 10, 2012 and made available today.

European Pressphoto Agency photographer Balazs Mohai followed a group of volunteer doctors and dentists this month as they dispensed treatment to children living in rural communities in Romania's Hargita county, part of the historical region of Transylvania. 

The International Children's Safety Service sends a team of medical professionals around Hargita twice a year to examine and treat children in need at local hospitals and schools, irrespective of national, political or religious affiliation.

Related stories:

• PhotoBlog: Three-day free clinic offers care to underinsured, uninsured in Appalachia
• PhotoBlog: Nepal's 'magic' eye surgeon brings light back to poor
• PhotoBlog: Russian train brings medical care to remote areas of Siberia
• LIFE: W. Eugene Smith's groundbreaking 'Country Doctor' photo essay, 1948

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Balazs Mohai / EPA

Volunteers Adrienn Szabo, left, and Eniko Grozdics examine children in a kindergarten in Armaseni.

Balazs Mohai / EPA

Volunteer dentists Daniel Kepes, left, and Kiyan Ojtun Arda examine a boy in Sandominic.

Balazs Mohai / EPA

A girl waits for an eye examination in the kindergarten of Lunca de Sus.

Balazs Mohai / EPA

Children play outside a kindergarten in Armaseni as they wait for a medical examination.

Balazs Mohai / EPA

Volunteer medical workers have dinner in Sandominic after completing their work for the day.

Photographer David Gray has been traveling across a small part of Mongolia, which is the least densely populated country on the planet according to figures cited by Reuters. The population of just 2.7 million is spread across an area three times the size of France, with two-fifths of Mongolians living in rural areas. 

David Gray / Reuters

Horses graze on grasslands south-west of the Mongolian capital city Ulan Bator on April 4, 2012.

David Gray / Reuters

A painting of the former Mongolian Emperor Genghis Khan hangs from the wall of a mining hut located around 62 miles north of Ulan Bator on April 5, 2012.

David Gray / Reuters

A frozen river is seen next to a group of houses located on the outskirts of the Mongolian capital city of Ulan Bator on April 3, 2012.

Reuters examines the political situation in Mongolia ahead of parliamentary elections in June: 

Mongolia sits on vast quantities of untapped mineral wealth, the exploitation of which is likely to turn it into one of the world's fastest growing economies over the next decade. 

But political uncertainty worries investors. One of the parties in Mongolia's shaky coalition government said it would pull out before the vote, and politicians are under constant pressure to be seen to getting a good deal for the country from resources investors.

The priority for Mongolia is the development of its tiny economy, and foreign investors want to know if the government can create a stable legal environment while handling the pressures exerted by impatient citizens as well as its two giant neighbours, Russia and China. Read more.

David Gray / Reuters

A herder stands on a hill overlooking grasslands south-west of Ulan Bator on April 4, 2012.

David Gray / Reuters

A dog sits at the door to a house in a small township located on grasslands south-west of Ulan Bator on April 4, 2012.

David Gray / Reuters

A woman performs a water displacement test to determine the purity of some gold that was brought in by small-scale miners at a processing plant north of Ulan Bator on April 5, 2012. The International Monetary Fund estimates Mongolia's GDP could grow as much as 10 percent this year, helped by rising gold prices but there is concern over environmental standards in the mining industry.

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Vincent West / Reuters

The ruins of the village of Esco in the Aragon region of Spain are seen at sunset on March 22, 2012.

The Aragonese community of Esco, dating back over 700 years, was forced to abandon its self sufficient way of life after the flooding of surrounding agricultural lands following the construction of the Yesa dam across the nearby Aragon River. Locals are protesting a proposed enlargement of the barrier, which was inaugurated in 1960 by General Francisco Franco, Reuters reports.

Vincent West / Reuters

A sheepdog sits among the ruins of the village of Esco on March 22, 2012.

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Bobby Yip / Reuters

A villager, 2nd right, checks with an election worker beside a ballot box at a school turned into a polling station in Wukan village in Lufeng, Guangdong province, China, on Feb. 1, 2012.

Reuters reports from WUKAN, China: 

Residents of a restive village in southern China held a symbolic election on Wednesday in what is being seen as a small step towards grassroots rights.

The rebellion last year against abuse of power and the illegal sale of hundreds of hectares of farmland in coastal Wukan have become a benchmark of rural defiance against land grabs and corruption that blight villages nation-wide.

Bobby Yip / Reuters

An election worker, left, looks out from inside a classroom guarded by police officers during vote counting at a school turned into a polling station in Wukan on Feb. 1, 2012.

More than 6,000 villagers streamed into a school amid brilliant sunshine, with turnout well over 80 percent.

"This far exceeded our expectations," said Yang Semao, a village elder who helped officiate. "It shows our passion for democracy." Read the full story.

Bobby Yip / Reuters

Villagers voting in Wukan on Feb. 1, 2012.

Related content: 

• A contagion of conflict in China?
• Villagers defiant as government creates new narrative
• Chinese villagers defy government in standoff over land rights
• Rebellious Chinese village under siege by police

Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

Residents of Wukan, a fishing village in the southern province of Guangdong, rally to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and the death in custody of a local leader on Dec. 15, 2011.

AFP - Getty Images

Residents prepare for the funeral of Xue Jinbo, a local leader who died in police custody, in Wukan on Dec. 15, 2011.

Reuters reports from BEIJING:

 Villagers in southern China on Thursday defied authorities and continued protests over a death in custody and land dispute in the latest outburst of simmering rural discontent that is eroding the ruling Communist Party's grip at the grassroots.

Many hundreds of residents in Wukan Village in Guangdong province held an angry march and rally despite moves by authorities to halt a land project at the center of the months-long unrest and detain local officials involved.

"The whole village is distraught and enraged. We want the central government to come in and restore justice," said one resident who described the scene.

AFP - Getty Images

Residents of Wukan march to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and Xue Jinbo's death on Dec. 15, 2011.

He and another resident, both speaking on condition of anonymity, said villagers remain enraged over last weekend's death in custody of Xue Jinbo, 42, who was detained on suspicion of helping organize protests against land seizures.

"We won't be satisfied until there is a full investigation and redress for Xue Jinbo's death," said the second resident.

"If you say he wasn't beaten to death, then you can show us the body," another villager who had his face hidden from the camera by the hood of his jacket told Hong Kong's Cable TV.

"If there really isn't any injury on the body, then why would you not return the body to us?" Continue reading.

AFP - Getty Images

Residents of Wukan take part in a rally on Dec. 15, 2011.

Read more in a Behind the Wall blog post by Ed Flanagan of NBC News: Rebellious Chinese village under siege by police

Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters

A woman reads a ballot during the parliamentary election in the western Russian village of Klukino, some 290 miles from Moscow, on Dec. 4, 2011. Russians voted on Sunday in parliamentary polls seen as a test of Vladimir Putin's personal authority ahead of a planned return to the presidency.

Pavel Golovkin / AP

An election official, center, sits inside a car with a ballot box she took to the villagers who were unable to come to the polling station in the village of Arzinka, some 312 miles east of Moscow on Dec. 4, 2011.

Sergei Grits / AP

Yuri Zaitsev votes at his home in the village of Oster, 237 miles west of Moscow, Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011, as an election commission official looks on, left.

We featured a few images of the Russian parliamentary elections on PhotoBlog over the weekend, but these scenes of rural voting charmed me enough to warrant another post.

Vladimir Putin, seen below preparing to cast his own vote, may not be so enamored with the election results. Projections on Monday indicated that Putin's ruling United Russia party saw its parliament majority weaken sharply in Sunday's vote despite allegations of widespread violations. Read the latest news on the results.

Alexei Nikolsky / Ria Novosti via Reuters

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sits to get registered at a polling station in Moscow on Dec. 4, 2011.