From Breitbart: Argentina successfully debuted its new single paper ballot in Sunday’s election, marking a victory for President Javier Milei, who spearheaded efforts for the new, massively overhauled and pro-transparency electoral system.
For decades, until Sunday’s midterm legislative elections, Argentina used a complex ballot system that had its roots in early 20th century electoral reforms. The old system, codified into law after the country’s return to democracy in the 1980s, required that each Argentine political party, using public funding, design, print, and distribute individual ballots for their respective candidates in voting stations.
An Argentine voter, upon verifying his or her identity to the station’s electoral authorities, was given an empty signed envelope before heading to a “dark room” where the voter, depending on the nature of the election, had to introduce the individually printed ballots of his or her chosen party before casting a vote in the box.
The individual ballot system was widely criticized throughout the years as – even though the act of destroying, stealing, replacing, tampering with, or concealing the ballots is an electoral crime in Argentina punishable with prison time – numerous instances of voters denouncing the theft of ballots at voting stations were documented over the years. A theft of a party’s ballots would leave voters unable to cast their votes due to a lack of ballots for his or her chosen candidate. In light of the continued instances of incidents involving ballots, political parties largely relied on men or women who acted as voluntary poll watchers to ensure the correct and transparent development of elections at voting stations.
The report explains that Melei started efforts to overhaul Argentina’s election system right after he first took office in December 2023, and the country’s Congress finally approved a Single Paper Ballot system in October.
The new system requires voters to walk into the voting station and present their ID card. Then they are given a paper ballot and a pen where they enter a voting booth, fill out the ballot, fold it and put it in the ballot box.
READ MORE from Breitbart.
U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Milei for his party’s latest victory in a Truth Social post Sunday night, writing, “Congratulations to President Javier Milei on his Landslide Victory in Argentina. He is doing a wonderful job! Our confidence in him was justified by the People of Argentina.”
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