Voting in Buenos Aires

I went along to the polls yesterday to see how the elections were going. Nobody seemed to mind my taking pictures, except the reporter from the trash-the-politicians show Caiga quien caiga (let fall whoever falls) who turned the other way whenever I tried to take his picture.

Outside the school housing the voting center for Buenos Aires Election District 18, two groups of people were checking lists for their names – men on the right looking at blue sheets of paper, women on the left with pink sheets. There was no wait to vote in District 18, but we passed a massive line waiting outside a police station, full of people waiting to be excused from the mandatory vote. You can get out of voting if you live more than 500 km from your house; absentee voting is not permitted. Despite all the people getting out of voting, and despite all the talk of people defying the law and not going to the polls, when I stopped by at four o’clock, two hours before closing time, it looked like at least 3/4 of the names on the lists had been checked off. Indeed, officials today say the turnout was estimated at about 80% of eligible people – and many over 70 voted despite being officially excused from doing so. Only 2.67% cast blank ballots.

This was the tightest, most hotly-contested race in Argentina's history.

In Argentina, you vote by going into a room alone where you find piles of paper, each with a candidate’s name. You pick the candidates you want, put them in an envelope, seal the envelope, then come out of the room and drop it in the cardboard, hand-made-looking ballot box on the table with all of the election observers – one from each party to ensure fairness. Each table of election officials is supposed to have a table president, summoned at random from the local population. Table presidents don’t always show up, which leads to big delays.

No campaigning is allowed in the days immediately before the election, to give people time to clear their heads of propaganda and to make a reasoned choice. Elections are scheduled for Sundays, and bars/clubs etcetera are closed on the preceding Saturday night so that people won’t be hung over the day they have to go to the polls.

From laws like these, you might think Argentina is ruled by a healthy democracy. But then look who won:

previously there was Billy Pilgrim
afterwards you have Getting sucked into April, 1977

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