To the Polls!

National elections were held here in Argentina yesterday. Again. For something like the fourth or fifth time since I've been here. If you're here in Argentina reading this, you're likely thinking So what? I don't get what the big deal is? and if you happen to be in the United States reading, I imagine you're thinking Four elections in one year?! What went wrong? But yes, in fact, having these four elections in a single year is not out of the ordinary in Argentina and I wanted to take a moment to comment on this part of Argentine society that is so distinct from the electoral system that we find in the US.

• Voting is compulsory. As I briefly mentioned in a prior post, voting is mandatory for citizens here in Argentina. Each individual's officially declared address determines in which municipality s/he votes; I have numerous students, for example, who live here in Resistencia but have not officially changed their address, and thus, travel back to their towns in other parts of Chaco to vote on election day. Individuals unable to be in their town on election day cannot complete an absentee ballot per say like I am able to do in the states (at least as far as I have been able to decipher voting procedures/regulations). However, if they happen to be over 500 kilometers from their home, an individual is not required to report to vote and can, instead, report to the local police station on the day of elections, wherever they happen to be, to make an official record of their reason for not voting.
• The presidency is decided strictly by voting percentages. No complicated electoral college system in Argentina (which is a beast to explain/teach, by the way, as I have attempted to do so in a few of my classes here that touch on culture). The president wins strictly on the premise of garnering the largest percentage of the popular vote, with at least a ten percent margin of difference between her/him and the runner-up candidate. Yesterday, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was re-elected in a landslide, winning nearly 54% of the vote with candidates Hermes Binner, Ricardo Alfonsín, and A. Rodríguez Saá gaining other "significant" percentages of the vote with 17%, 11% and 8%, respectively. Apparently Cristina's victory was also a new historical high for the percentage vote won by a presidential candidate since the return of democratic processes after the military governments of the late 70's and early 80's (Alfonsín was the previous name alongside this record, winning 51.7% of the vote in 1983).
• Local politicians have a lot of sway in deciding when their elections will be, apart from the national elections. I can describe why these local and provincial level elections happen separate from their national counterparts about as clearly as I can describe the U.S.'s electoral college system to my students; it's complicated-- bear with me. While many places here are moving toward/already using computers in an electronic voting system, the paper ballots utilized previously were marked by their perforations and the necessary tearing off of certain parts of the ballot to mark one's vote (think Florida's controversial "chad" situation in the 2000 elections and you're closer to understanding this system). In other words, it can be rather simple to vote for all the candidates of a single political party by tearing off all portions of the ballot along a single perforated line. If officials seeking reelection believe this party-line voting might work against them, it is not unheard of, nor uncommon, that they create a separate election day for a particular office (i.e. given that other offices in contest would include strong candidates of an opposing political party, the elected official fears the potential of losing these votes that s/he might otherwise win on an "independent" ballot).
• Voting is held in schools, always on Sundays, and there is a lottery to decide which teachers must work at elections. Additionally, in schools like mine (San Fernando Rey) where they have voting on Sunday, classes are cancelled on Monday to promote a full cleaning of the school facilities after being utilized by hordes of voters. I didn't really take note after past election days whether the institute seemed cleaner (or not) upon our return on Tuesday (tabled mental note to be resurfaced when I go to work tomorrow). Finally, I do feel bad for the teachers whose efforts are solicited for these full day civic duties; frankly, they don't have a choice on whether to accept the responsibility or not and it's my impression that they have to work the entire day (from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm).

There you have it: the very basics of elections and voting in Argentina. I know there are plenty of details that have not yet crossed my radar, that I wouldn't want to bore you with, and/or that I have already forgotten, but I hope the above details provide a brief snapshot of the election process here. In my opinion, having four separate elections with obligatory voting responsibilities in less than 8 months is borderline obnoxious. On the flip side, I certainly know more about this electoral system than if there had only been one election in my tenure of living in Chaco. :)