The federal judge with electoral jurisdiction, María Romilda Servini, He set out his position regarding the October election. The judge maintains that You must return to the dark room as the one that always existed and, inside, the citizen will have two types of tickets, only paper. On the one hand, those of national positions -vice president, national deputies -headings in which only five formulas remained in the race- and, on the other hand, those of Buenos Aires positions, such as head of government, City legislators, for whom only four formulas remained. The citizen will enter the dark room with the only envelope and put inside a bill of national charges and one of Buenos Aires charges. He will return to the table where there will be a single urn. At the end of the day the count will be made, as it happens in almost all the districts, in which the national positions, provincial positions and municipal positions converge in a single table.
The magistrate, in dialogue with Radio 10made it clear that the problem on August 13 was not only the machines but the existence of two votes, with two tables, two ballot boxes, entry to the screen and then to the electronic voting machine. As is known, the machine had many problems, due to poor service, because the paper was suitable for the election in Paraguay, where they were used before, and because the connections were precarious. But the biggest drawback were the delays for the two votes -screen first, machine later- that resulted in many citizens leaving without voting.
Concurrent elections but without electronic voting
The solution proposed by Servini respects the idea of concurrent elections. In other words, they are separate tickets. The question has a political motivation: the Buenos Aires ruling party wants to avoid dragging Javier Milei’s presidential ticket. Actually, the libertarian did quite badly in Buenos Aires territory, he got just over 17 percent. But it was even worse for Ramiro Marra, the candidate for head of government of La Libertad Avanza, who got 13 percent. The performance in Buenos Aires shows that its voters come rather from humble stripes.
There is still another alternative, which is the one used in a good part of the provinces: that the vote for local authorities be attached, at the bottom, to that of the national authorities. In other words, above the president-vice president, national deputies, legislators from Parlasur, and below, the head of government, legislators from the City. This is what happens in all the municipalities of the Province of Buenos Aires. This solution would be even simpler, but it would not be in line with the idea of concurrent elections.
For Servini’s proposal to materialize, the following steps will have to be taken:
- The Buenos Aires government must decide. The alternatives are not very good. Servini has already said that he does not accept that there are two elections. Therefore, CABA should set another day, with all the cost that this means in terms of electoral operations and security operations, or get other schools for the same October 22, something very difficult. Accepting Servini’s proposal also has its difficulties: the PRO would renounce one of its emblematic positions such as electronic voting. It happens that the shipwreck of August 13 does not leave many exits.
- If CABA accepts the proposal, It must also be accepted by the National Electoral Board of CABA, which is a member of Servini and which is now chaired by the head of the Administrative Litigation Chamber, Jorge Morán. The opinion of the magistrate has the greatest weight.
Everything indicates that there would be no obstacles.
How will the vote be in CABA
If things are resolved that way, the process would be as follows:
- The citizen arrives at a single table and receives a single envelope.
- Enter the traditional darkroom or even the cardboard screen that was in place on August 13.
- On one side will be the ballots to elect national authorities and on the other those corresponding to Buenos Aires offices.
- The citizen, if he does not wish to vote blank, puts two ballots in the envelope, one for national charges and the other for Buenos Aires charges.
- He leaves the dark room and puts the envelope in the only urn on the table.
- At 6:00 p.m., when the table closes, the count is made as it is done throughout the country: the votes are counted for each of the categories and they are put on the corresponding forms.
The most certain thing is that the election of October 22 in CABA will be different from that of August 13. Neither the machines nor the two votes on the same day worked. In a few days a solution will have to be found, because you have to enter into a new ticket printing process. It is not the same if the Buenos Aires charges are attached to the national ones, if they go on two different ballots or if, on another day, they insist with the machines. This last alternative seems ruled out.
