Monzó presented a project to implement the single vote on paper in the next elections

Emilio Monzó, national deputy of the Interbloc Encuentro Federal, presented a series of bills aimed at modernizing the electoral system. One of the initiatives aims to replace the party ballot with a single paper-based ballot that concentrates the entire election offer, in order to “give greater transparency to the electoral process, reduce state spending and the environmental impact of printing the ballots of parties, and to ensure the fairness of the various political forces.”

“We have been voting with the same system for more than 100 years, we must make a qualitative leap that will allow us to adapt to the times also in the electoral scenario. In the next elections, we can no longer hear that ballots are stolen or that the state prints thousands of ballots that are finally thrown away, with the cost that this also represents for our planet,” said the former president of the Chamber of Deputies.

The initiative “is a system with a favorable economic impact, both for the state and for political parties, since it significantly reduces the printing of ballots, thus generating cost savings”, assured the foundations of the project. It should be remembered that today, as many ballots are printed as political parties participate in elections. The single ballot also leads to a reduction in environmental impact, thus contributing to the protection of the environment

Citizens generally agree that the electoral system must evolve into a single voting system as a supervisor of the current system. “This form of voting promotes a qualitative improvement of our electoral system, guaranteeing transparency and equality,” the text of the draft says.

To justify the importance of applying a single ballot, Monzó recalls that “the current system harms political parties whose situation is inferior to that of large party structures that have the financial resources necessary to print an inordinate number of ballots and human resources enough to distribute them.”

With the unique paper ballot “the voter can find and clearly identify the election proposal, because it carries the logos of the political parties and photos of the candidates, all of equal size”.

Likewise, its most distinctive feature is that the state, and not the political parties, will assume responsibility for the design, printing and distribution of ballots. In this way, the ballots are available exclusively at the polling stations and cannot be legally taken there, which guarantees voters and candidates that all electoral options will be present when voting.

“Since the entire election offer is on the same ballot, it is guaranteed that the elector has at his disposal the option of his choice. The transparency of the process is further enhanced because the only person who has the ballots in his possession will be the authority of each polling station, who will give them to each voter when he or she shows up to vote. There is no longer any transfer of ballots because the only officials will be those issued by the chair of the table at the very moment of the vote, he adds in the bases of the project.

At present, the single paper ballot dominates the whole world, being used in the vast majority of democratic countries. In Latin America, it is mainly used with the exception of Argentina and Uruguay. In our country, the provinces of Córdoba and Santa Fe have been implemented since 2011. The National Electoral Chamber even introduced this model in 2007 to allow Argentines to vote abroad and in prisons.

The design and preparation will be carried out by the National Electoral Chamber and must be approved at least thirty (30) days before the date set for the elections. In addition, it must be printed at least 15 days before the election date in an amount equal to the number of electors corresponding to the electoral list, plus an additional 5% for reconstitution in case of contingency

The single ballot will allow for quick inspection by reducing the risk of vandalism of the ballots, which will prevent prosecutors and the table authority from permanently entering to inspect the darkroom. It also helps speed up the voting process as it includes the installation of more than one booth at each polling station, allowing several people to vote simultaneously.

“In each polling station there will be the same number of unique ballots as those entitled to vote, a figure to which will be added the additional percentage of 5%”, it is emphasized in the draft and it is detailed that once in the darkroom, “the voter will mark and select his candidates on his ballot, fold it up and come back to the table immediately. And the single ballot paper folded in such a way that the meaning of suffrage is not revealed, will be deposited by the voter in the ballot box.”

The single ballot paper will have the following characteristics:

📌 It will be made of newsprint or common artwork of sixty (60) grams maximum, printed in color

📌 It is divided into horizontal bands of equal dimensions corresponding to each political group that approved candidates and columns for each category of functions to be elected with an indication of the candidates

📌 You must clearly identify the name of the political party or alliance. In the case of primary elections, the name of the internal list

📌 Each column must contain at least the photo of the first candidate; the acronym, the coat of arms, the logo, the symbol or emblem and the identification number of the political group

📌 For the election of the president and vice-president, it must contain the full names of the candidates and a color photograph

📌 For the election of national senators, it must contain the full names of the candidates and a color photo of the incumbents as well as the surname and first names of the alternates

📌 In the case of national deputies and parliamentarians of Mercosur, the ballot paper must contain a color photograph of the first two candidates and, the full names of those who appear in the number determined by the competent electoral justice in the district, which may not be less than eight (8), except for districts when a number is chosen lower, in which case the total number of candidates is recorded

📌 Ballots must be written in Spanish, with identical typography for all categories. Each category must have the same font size. Count to the right of each category and the option “vote the complete list” with a box to check the corresponding option. If the political party or alliance does not participate in any of the categories of positions to be elected, the entry “No candidate present” will be included in the corresponding space

📌 Provide space for the signature of the chair of the table and supporters of the prosecutor

📌 Explicitly indicate how to fold the ballot paper so that, when it is placed in the ballot box by the voter, the meaning of the vote is not revealed

📌 Be grouped in checkbooks with correlative numbers, from which they will be detached to be given to the elector at the time of the vote with the signature of the chair of the table and the partisan attorneys present

With regard to the project to eliminate the mandatory nature of PASO, Monzó also proposes that political forces that present a single list of pre-candidates can choose whether or not to participate in this electoral body.

In order to skip PASO, groups must have obtained at least 1.5% of the valid votes cast in the previous general elections and ask the National Electoral Justice to proclaim this list of candidates for the general election.

“The course of events has shown that the main foundations on which PAOS have been implemented have been distorted. In practice, the mandatory nature of primaries, even in the case of single lists, makes them an expensive ballot, thus transforming the electoral system into an imperfect three-round system that extends the times, adding great political uncertainty to the presidential replacements,” explained Monzó.

In turn, the deputy stressed the need to “give voters the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to participate in the primaries, especially when many places do not have internal competition.”

The same bill provides for changes in the conformation of presidential formulas: in PASO, pre-candidates for the presidency will not have candidates and only those who run in the general election will have 48 hours after the primary to elect their candidate for the vice presidency. .

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

Both projects are signed by Margarita Stolbizer, Sebastián García de Luca and Domingo Amaya, who share with Monzó the federal interbloc Encuentro.

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