2023-08-13 20:15:00
The Primary, Open, Simultaneous and Compulsory (PASO) in the City of Buenos Aires take place with delays in some voting centers, as reported from different schools. The information shows that, in some polling stations, the arrival of the ballot boxes by the Post Office was delayed, while in others the machines for electronic voting do not work. Following this, the federal judge with electoral jurisdiction María Servini announced that she will file a criminal complaint against the relevant authorities and did not rule out that voting hours are extended in the district of Buenos Aires.
Election day in CABA began with a slow influx of voters in the early hours of the morning in educational establishments authorized to vote, where there were delays in voting as a result of the double system. Said system consists of the use of a paper ballot for national offices, while the electronic ballot is used to elect local authorities.
Patricia Bullrich: “The vote in the City of Buenos Aires is a disaster”
In some establishments in the Palermo and Caballito neighborhoods, citizens had to wait up to 20 minutes to access the polls. There were even complaints on social networks where voters stated that It took almost two hours to pay. Added to this, users indicated that there were machines that did not turn on, others that turned off and some that did not print the tickets.
This problem did not go unnoticed by the electoral justice system, since Judge Servini denounced serious flaws in the electronic voting system. The magistrate is in charge of the national and local elections in CABA, where the two voting systems converge: the traditional one and the tables with electronic voting.
Through a note sent to the president of the Electoral Chamber, Alberto Dalla Vía, Servini warned about the “troubling improvisation with which both the company contracted for the provision and installation of voting machines and the Electoral Management Institute of the City of Buenos Aires have managed, evidencing a never-before-seen inexperience in carrying out and executing an electoral process”.
Milei complained about the Buenos Aires voting system: “When you want to cheat, this happens”
“I cannot take responsibility for the situations described or for their possible consequences, since they were not generated by the actions of this court,” said the angry judge. “Throughout the day there have been various difficulties related to its installation, testing and commissioning”he asserted.
Thus, he described that “in some places the machines in question only arrived at night” yesterday, “in others they never arrived or they were located incorrectly; in others they had not been connected or tested; in many places the installation kit; some of them didn’t work directly”. According to the judge’s evaluation, 30% of electronic voting machines are in this situation.
As a result of the situation, he advanced in statements to Radio Miter what will decide at after 5:00 p.m. if voting hours will be extended in the district of Buenos Aires. “The vote would have been more agile if everything had been all on paper,” she said.
Added to this, according to judicial sources to Argentine News, the judge “repeatedly communicated” with the head of the Buenos Aires government and presidential candidate Horacio Rodríguez Larreta to find a solution to the difficulties for electronic voting. They also specified that the situation remains “chaotic” in several voting centers where the machines malfunction or do not work at all.
The reaction of the National Electoral Chamber and the response of the City Government
The Electoral Chamber referred to the situation and blamed the Buenos Aires government for the delays. “The election in the City is in charge of Servini in regards to the national election and in charge of the city organisms in what corresponds to the local categories”, he explained to TN Sebastián Schimmel, secretary of the National Electoral Chamber.
“The court informed clearly when it found the inconveniences with the operation of the local devices, which is something under the responsibility of local authorities. That is outside the scope of the jurisdiction of Judge Servini de Cubría,” he specified. Likewise, the secretary did not rule out the extension of the elections in the City of Buenos Aires. “When the time came and given the need, she (Servini) will report,” he said.
For their part, the government of the City of Buenos Aires explained that “only 87 machines enabled for voting with the Single Electronic Ballot (less than 1 percent of the total) registered problems at the beginning of the day that have already been corrected”. In turn, they indicated that “in some tables there were problems due to the absence of table authorities but they have already been covered.”
“The first concurrent elections in the City of Buenos Aires began this morning normally and They are being carried out without problems in the 1,097 establishments set up for this purpose“, they expressed from the Buenos Aires executive.
Patricia Bullrich’s harsh criticism of the electronic system: “Voting in the City of Buenos Aires is a disaster”
The presidential candidate of Together for Change Patricia Bullrich was very harsh with the electronic system in the City of Buenos Aires, pointing out that “It’s a disaster” and stressed that she “choose one list and another ended up coming out”. The anger of the head of the PRO was as a result of the 26 minutes it took her to vote due to the problems in the electronic machine in which the head of the City Government is elected: “I had to vote seven times and they changed the machine because it didn’t work.”
Added to this, he revealed that “I voted for one list and ended up coming out another”. A similar problem was raised by other users on social networks, who denounced that the candidates they chose were different from those that the machine computed.
In addition, Bullrich stressed: “Electoral systems must have a level of maturity. The ideal is to vote in three minutes and leave, waiting in line is enough.” When consulted by Argentine News Regarding the need to extend the closing hours of the elections, he affirmed: “That will be decided by the Electoral Justice, it is not something that I can decide.”
The statements of the politicians who voted in CABA
In line with Bullrich’s criticisms, different politicians who had to vote in the City of Buenos Aires also expressed their anger when voting. For example, Javier Mileypre-candidate for La Libertad Avanza, cast his vote at a venue of the National Technological University (UTN) and dedicated a large part of his speech to mentioning the problems in the Buenos Aires elections.
“It is long and dense, but these are the things that happen when you improvise in order to cheat and get a little electoral advantage. This was expected, we had anticipated it. These are the consequences, every time politicians cheat, the people pay for it. The way the City implemented e-voting was very improvised.” And he added: “Now we are paying for it in terms of time. Who is going to make up for the time I’m wasting to do all this queue?”.
For his part, Leandro Santoro, pre-candidate for Buenos Aires Head of Government of Unión por la Patria, took half an hour to cast his vote in a school in the San Cristóbal neighborhood. “I realized that the table authorities are saying that ‘don’t vote in the City’. It has to be a minor case because otherwise it would be a scandal,” he said. “It’s important that people participate even if the vote takes a few minutes. We celebrate 40 years of democracy”.
Something similar raised Jorge Macri, candidate for Head of Government for Together for Change, who called on people to “take at least two hours a day” to go vote. Added to this, he minimized the problems at the start of the election in CABA. “It’s the same as always, throughout the day it will normalize,” he remarked.
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