Monzó announced a project to implement a single paper ballot in the upcoming elections.

Emilio Monzó, the national representative of the Interblock Encuentro Commonwealth, has announced a series of bills aimed at modernizing the electoral system. One of the initiatives seeks to “replace party ballots with a single paper ballot that focuses on the overall election proposal to give greater transparency to the selection process, reduce national spending and the environmental impact of printed party ballots, and ensure equity, and other political forces”.

“We have been voting with the same system for more than 100 years, and we must make a qualitative leap to adapt to the times, even in the electoral scenario. In the next election, we cannot hear again that the ballots were stolen or that the country would print thousands of ballots that were finally abandoned.” The former President of the House of Representatives said.

The basis of the project was convinced that this initiative was “a system that has a favorable economic impact for both the state and the political party, since it is possible to reduce costs by significantly reducing the printing of ballots”. It should be recalled that today, as political parties participate in elections, many ballots are printed. Single voting also contributes to environmental protection by reducing environmental impact.

There is a broad consensus among citizens that the electoral system should evolve into a single voting system as the supervisor of the current system. “This form of voting promotes the qualitative improvement of the electoral system, giving transparency and equality.” The text of the draft says.

To justify the importance of applying a single ballot, Monzó said, “The current system harms parties whose conditions are inferior compared to large party structures that have financial resources to print an excessive number of ballots and sufficient human resources to distribute.”

With a single paper vote, “voters can clearly find and identify election proposals because the party's logo and the candidate's photo are all the same size.”

Likewise, the most prominent feature is that the state, not the political party, is responsible for the design, printing and distribution of the ballot; doing so ensures that all electoral options exist when voting for voters and candidates, since ballots can only be used at polling stations and they cannot vote legally there.

“Since the entire election proposal is on the same ballot, the voters can dispose of the option they choose. The only person who will own the ballot will be the authority of each polling place, and the transparency of the procedure is further enhanced because it will be handed over to each elector when voting. Since the only official vote is the ballot provided by the table president in the act of voting, it is added to the basics of the project.

Currently, single-paper voting is dominant throughout the world and is used in the majority of democratic countries. In Latin America, it is mainly used except for Argentina and Uruguay. In our country, the provinces of Cordoba and Santa Fe have been in force since 2011. The National Electoral Chamber introduced this model in 2007 to allow Argentina to vote abroad and in prisons.

The design and preparation is carried out by the National Electoral Chamber and must be approved at least thirty (30) days before the election date. In addition, 15 days before the election event date, it must be printed in an amount equal to the number of voters corresponding to the Electoral College, and an additional 5% must be printed for replenishment in case of emergency.

A single ballot allows for rapid inspection by reducing the chance of ballot breakage, so prosecutors and table authorities do not need to enter the darkroom permanently to inspect the darkroom.In addition, since more than one partition can be installed at each polling place, multiple people can vote at the same time, thereby speeding up the voting process.

“Each polling place has a single ballot with the same number of people who are eligible to vote, which is a figure to which an additional percentage of 5% will be added”, highlighted in the project and when entering a dark room, “the voter will score and select a candidate in a single. When the ballot is folded, it will immediately return to the table.And the folded single ballot will be deposited in the ballot box by the voter so that the meaning of suffrage is not revealed.”

A single ballot has the following characteristics:

📌 It is made from newspaper paper or regular artwork up to 60g and is printed in colors.

📌 A horizontal band of the same dimension corresponding to each political group that approved the candidate and a column for each job to be elected shall be separated, along with the indication of the candidate.

📌 The name of the party or alliance must be clearly stated. In the case of a preliminary election, the name of the internal list

📌 Each column must contain at least a photo, abbreviation, sentence, logo, symbol or emblem of the first candidate and the identification number of the political collective.

📌 The candidate's name and color photograph must be included for the election of the president and vice-president.

📌 For the election of the National Senate, it is necessary to include the full name of the candidate, the color photo of the holder, the name and surname of the substitute.

📌 For members of Parliament and Parliamentarians of Mercosur, the ballot must include color photographs of the first two candidates and a statement with a number determined by the Registrar of Elections, and cannot be more than 8 (8), except for the constituency. If a lower number is selected, the total number of candidates shall be recorded in this case.

📌 The ballot must be written in Spanish, using the same typography in all categories. The font size of each category must be the same. Select the “Vote the entire list” option with a box to count and indicate the corresponding options.If a political party or alliance does not participate in the category of the position to be elected, the corresponding space will include a “No candidate” entry.

📌 Arrange a space for the signature of the chairman of the table and the prosecutor's supporter.

📌 Explicitly state how to fold the ballot so that the meaning of suffrage is not revealed when the voter puts it in the ballot box

📌 It must be grouped into a check book with a correlation number, separated to be transferred to the elector at the time of voting, and handed over to the elector with the signature of the table president and the partisan prosecutor.

Regarding the project to eliminate the mandatory characteristics of PASO, Monzó also suggests that political forces that present a single list of candidates can choose whether or not to compete in that electoral institution.

To be able to skip the PASO, the group must obtain at least 1.5% of the votes that were voted in the previous general election and ask the National Elections Justice Department to declare a list of candidates for the general election.

“In the course of the case, it showed that the main bases on which PASO was implemented were distorted. In fact, the mandatory nature of the preliminary elections became expensive polls, even in the case of a single list, turning the electoral system into an incomplete three-round system extending the times, adding great political uncertainty to the replacement of the president.” Monzó claimed.

As a result, the deputies pointed to the need to “provide the possibility for voters to decide whether or not to participate in the primary elections, especially if there is no internal competition in much space.”

The same legislation provides for a change in the form of the presidential formula. At PASO, presidential prospective candidates do not have running colleagues, and only those who attend the general election can elect candidates for vice-presidency 48 hours after the primary election. .

They will have “the possibility of choosing one of the pre-candidates who participated in the competition within the same political union as a running mate”, says the project.

Both projects are signed by Margarita Stolviser, Sebastian García de Luca, and Domingo Amaya, who share the interblock with Monzo and the federal enquent.

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