The project of Single Paper Ballot (BUP) was approved in the Cuyo district at the initiative of the then governor Rodolfo Suareztoday a senator for the Radical Civic Union (UCR). In the local upper house, The initiative garnered 25 positive votes and 12 negative votes, and was subsequently sent to the Deputies, where it received 31 votes in favor, 15 against and one absence.
Although in its genesis Peronism claimed to agree with the proposal, the truth is that it raised objections regarding the “single list” item, arguing that this favored the traditional parties. The system was finally implemented in Mendoza in 2023 and debuted in the Simultaneous and Mandatory Open Primaries (PASO), and then repeated in the elections that marked the triumph of Alfredo Cornejo.
Mendoza: political support for the Single Ballot
Today, more than a year after that debut and with the project about to be replicated at the national level, Mendoza leaders from different teams express the usefulness of the BUP. In defense of the initiative, Suarez showed off the Cuyo experience and celebrated the application of the model used in his management.
In that sense, he pointed out that the Single Ballot “it favors equity in electoral competition; it provides transparency and agility to the process; it guarantees the supply of ballots throughout the voting; it reduces electoral spending; and it eliminates certain electoral tricks, such as the theft of ballots.”
“For us, the experience of the Single Ballot was very positive. We had staggered elections, for some municipalities first, and then provincial ones. There were municipal PASO, general municipal PASO, provincial PASO and general provincial ones. The voting process was greatly accelerated. By not needing dark room, you had two boxes per table, so it went much faster; people got used to it quickly”added to Scope the president of the Chamber of Deputies of Mendoza, Andrés Lombardi.
The official noted that the main concern was the course of the scrutiny, but that, however, there were no major complications: “It was possible to scrutinize quickly. It was beneficial on all sides. Obviously, the fact that the ballots could not be distributed in advance, that you cannot take photos, also brought transparency.” “We still have to give it a learning process, because people didn’t exactly check the box, but they checked the category and we considered it valid,” said.
The Justicialista Party of Mendoza also reported on the effectiveness. “The system is great. I didn’t have faith in it, but it went very well. People came out quickly, they voted quickly. We voted against because we had dissent on an article: we wanted the ‘complete list’ option to be at the bottom and not at the top, to that there was no sheet list, but the progress was very positive”, said a consulted source.
On the same path, the head of the Libertarian Party of Mendoza, Jose Cavigliahighlighted that the single ballot was auspicious. “The experience was very positive. In principle, the issue of printing ballots is over, it makes inspection much easier,” the leader indicated to this medium. In addition, he maintained that the system ends the theft and tearing of ballots.
“In the general elections, we had many problems of both: constantly replacing ballots, or else they broke an ear so that the ballot is not valid. This is a transparent mechanism, which should have been applied,” said Caviglia, whose party lent its structure to support the presidential candidacy of Javier Milei in the province.
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Telam
However, he highlighted the same problem that Lombardi identified: “The Mendoza ballot had the complete list box and the photo of the most important candidate, so many times people put a check mark on the candidate’s photo and not the complete list box. The complete list box is in the party logo and “Many people call him the candidate.”
Beyond that aspect, there was no major criticism. On the contrary, he considered that the location of the different political parties on the ballot is drawn by lot. “You can get the last box, but you can also get the first. It is quite transparent in this regard. Without a doubt, any single ballot mechanism is highly positive,” complete.
The debut of the Single Ballot and the triumph of Alfredo Cornejo
At the provincial level, The Mendocina Paper Single Ballot debuted in Mendoza on August 11, 2023, during the local PASO. Each front could have more than one candidate and each column of the ballot was a list, while the colors identified the different lists of the same front. The rows separated the categories: governor, senators, deputies, mayors and councilors. The format allowed you to vote for different candidates from different spaces, completing the blank box next to each one, or directly the complete list, whose option appeared at the top of the BUP.
For those elections, A ballot 68 cm long, 12.5 cm high printed on both sides was established; with a green obverse that served to close the vote and with a side where the political groups were divided by color, with logo and shield.
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On September 25, 2023, after having won the primaries, Alfredo Cornejo He managed to return to the Mendoza governorship after obtaining 39.5% of the votes in the provincial elections, prevailing over his main challenger, Omar de Marchifrom La Unión Mendocina, who took second place, with 29.6%. The Peronist was third Omar Parisiwith 14.7% of the votes, while Mario Vadillo, of the Green Party, and Lautaro Jimenezfrom the Left Front, took fourth and fifth place.
Source: Ambito
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