Caracas Chronicles

MYTHS

“The vote isn’t secret”

False. The CNE’s automated system guarantees that the vote is secret. When one person votes, his or her vote is not stored in the system linked to his or her identity card. The order in which the votes appear—in a separate, encrypted database—is totally random, making it impossible to reconstruct the voting sequence. 

“Chavismo can manipulate the results however it wants”

False. Chavismo has only manipulated numbers in elections where the opposition has not competed, such as in the election of the National Constituent Assembly in 2017 and the referendum on the Essequibo last year. In both cases the opposition did not send witnesses, who at the end of the day can prove fraud with voting records in hand. This time, with the deployment of the Campaign Command and parties of the Unitary Platform, the possibilities of dismantling any manipulation  are quite high.

The government has indeed rigged elections through intimidation, clientelist pressure with state resources, and delaying voting in large and traditionally opposition polling stations.

“There is an underwater cable that reaches Cuba. Results are then manipulated in La Habana”

False. The results are transmitted encrypted by a private network that includes telephone operators (such as CANTV and Movilnet) and the state satellite network. This network is audited by political organizations, and it is impossible for it to be intervened by any actor (such as a foreign government) that would want to alter the results. The network is created so that only properly identified voting machines can leave messages on the network. Only the CNE’s counting centers can receive these messages, and only after 6:00 PM on election day.

In addition, when the voting centers close, a record is printed for each polling station containing the identification of the polling station, the position being elected (President of the Republic, in this case), and the votes obtained by each party and candidate (in addition to the null votes). Thanks to this, the witnesses of the political parties can verify that the information transmitted and published by the CNE is the same as that printed in the record.

The record also includes a QR code that contains said information and facilitates electoral control for the political parties.

For polling stations in remote sites without telephone or satellite transmission, the transmission process occurs by transferring a flash drive with the information of the polling station to another location where there is connectivity. There, another machine will be used to transmit the results of the isolated center.

“The notebooks and voting machines can be filled with votes from people who did not participate on election day”

Impossible. When a person goes to vote, he or she must show his or her ID and put his or her fingerprint on a device known as a fingerprint scanner. The voting machine is only activated if the person’s fingerprint matches the fingerprint contained in the device’s memory. If they do not match, the president of the table must authorize the vote by verifying the voter’s ID.

“There are thousands of ‘multi-ID’ voters who vote multiple times”

False. The political parties carry out two audits of the Electoral Registry that establish with precision that the duplication of voter fingerprints does not occur systematically. Therefore, the results cannot be altered by supposed voters who try to usurp the identity of others. In addition, the voting machines do not allow people with two IDs to identify themselves and vote with the same fingerprint.

The audit of the last election in Venezuela established that less than 2 people per 100,000 have duplicate fingerprints. These few duplicate fingerprints are mostly due to synchronization problems between the SAIME and the CNE related to the naturalization of citizens (where the same voter can appear simultaneously with a Venezuelan ID and a foreign ID).

“Dead people cast their ballots”

There are deceased people who still appear in the electoral registry. The CNE’s system for purging deceased voters is a process that has errors and delays― the deceased voter won’t be removed from the Registry by simply presenting a death certificate. There could be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead voters still in the Electoral Registry.

But as we said before, the machine is not activated unless the system recognizes the voter’s fingerprint. The dead person will only be able to vote if a usurping voter takes the fresh finger of a deceased person.

“You must vote wearing trousers and a face mask”

The CNE regulations do not say anything about masks or clothing. The only requirement to vote is the identity card, even if it is expired.

“All CNE rectors are pro-Maduro”

No. Aimé Nogal and Juan Carlos Delpino, two of the five CNE rectors, were members of the parties Un Nuevo Tiempo and Acción Democrática. In June, rector Delpino condemned -in Efecto Cocuyo- the arbitrary and opaque behavior of Elvis Amoroso, current president of the CNE. Delpino denounced the existence of internal censors within the CNE, and that the current board had not held a session in three months.

TRAPS

Results’ time

The CNE could produce partial reports with the results that are totaled after 6 PM. The CNE is supposed to announce results only when there is a clear result that cannot be reversed with the votes that are not transmitted (such as those from remote centers). But by 8 PM, the CNE should already have a clear idea of ​​who the winner is.

This means that the usual delay of the CNE rectors that has left us “on the edge” until midnight is really unjustified.

The CNE ‘orders’ the closure of polling stations

According to the regulations, the electoral centers must operate from 6 AM to 6 PM, and they cannot close while there are voters in line. However, the government has pressured CNE officials and soldiers of the Plan República to have the centers close early.

Supervised voting

According to the Organic Law of Electoral Processes, assisted voting is legal under certain circumstances. For example, if the person is disabled or elderly, in such cases the voter must give his consent for a person to accompany him to vote. But a citizen cannot accompany more than one voter.

Abusers who try to accompany and monitor the vote of more than one person under any excuse commit an electoral crime.

Red points and armed colectivos

Harassment of voters, political proselytism, and gatherings of 200 people during election day within 200 meters of the polling stations are prohibited. But the government has historically deployed groups of militants and armed motorcyclists to pressure the electorate, generally in popular areas and Chavista strongholds.

The PSUV’s carousel

It is an electoral crime. It happens when voters keep their voting receipt (instead of depositing it in the safekeeping boxes at the polling stations) to show it to groups of Chavista militants outside the center (and thus be able to continue receiving some help from the State). 

Operation Remate

It happens when pro-Chavez groups transport people who have not voted en masse to the polling stations. It usually takes place in the afternoon, when it is already getting dark and the polling stations are about to close.