Election 2019
Exclusive: By mistake, the Government counted blank votes and now Kicillof surpasses 52%
Electoral Law in the Province differs from the National Law and states that only affirmative votes shall be counted.

Due to a Government's error, provisional counting of votes included blank votes when only affirmative ones must be taken into account. According to the correct calculus, candidate Axel Kicillof obtained more than 52% of the votes, while Maria Eugenia Vidal got 34.6%.

Discussion arises because provincial Electoral Law, which takes after the National Law that created PASO (obligatory open and simultaneous primary elections), has a slightly different wording on the point of votes counting. The provincial Law states "validly casted affirmative votes" while the national one says ""validly casted votes". The difference consists in the word "affirmative" that implies that blank votes must not be counted as part of the denominator and therefore raises the percentages, explained to LPO a source from Justicialista Party (PJ).

Though, national Low requires a bare minimum to take part in general elections of 1.5% of the validly casted votes and Buenos Aires' law the same percentage of the validly casted affirmative votes. National wise, blank votes are valid ones but not affirmative once. That is why they are accounted in the national scrutiny, but not in the Province.

This means that in the last primary elections, Kicillof did not get 29.34% of the votes, as the official website shows, but 52.53%. "Provincial Electoral Board shall conclude the definitive scrutiny as stated by its Law and inform the final results again. Axel was elected by 52.53% of the citizens of the province on Buenos Aires", said the PJ sources.

Right after LPO published this scoop, TV broadcasters interviewed parties representatives. "We've just learned the news", replied Jorge Landau, PJ's representative to Cronica TV and he added: "For governor, blank votes shall never be counted". On the other hand, official sources explained that the national website that presented the election data had to be comparable among all provinces. "If we had taken this peculiarity of Buenos Aires province into account, then the results wouldn't have been comparable. We ought to use one same criterion". 

Publicar un comentario
Para enviar su comentario debe confirmar que ha leido y aceptado el reglamento de terminos y condiciones de LPO
Comentarios
Los comentarios publicados son de exclusiva responsabilidad de sus autores y las consecuencias derivadas de ellas pueden ser pasibles de las sanciones legales que correspondan. Aquel usuario que incluya en sus mensajes algun comentario violatorio del reglamento de terminos y condiciones será eliminado e inhabilitado para volver a comentar.
Más de English

The Centrao has already won‎

Por Marco Bastos
The Centrão is the bloc of conservative parties that has dominated Brazilian politics since the return to democracy in 1989. That bloc has been the hinge of the Brazilian political system, supporting all the Presidents of the young Brazilian democracy - both those on the left and on the right.‎
The LIBRE Initiative Believes Latinos will Define the Future of US Politics

The LIBRE Initiative Believes Latinos will Define the Future of US Politics

Por Lila Abed (Washington DC)
"I think that Governor DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio will be reelected in 2022,", says Director of Public Affairs at The LIBRE Initiative, César Grajales.
Democrats should 'tell authentic stories' to reach Latinos, says former Bernie Sanders advisor

Democrats should 'tell authentic stories' to reach Latinos, says former Bernie Sanders advisor

Por B. Debusmann (Washington DC)
Junelle Cavero Harnal, a former advisor to Bernie Sanders and Head of Political at H Code, believes that an effort to explain why policies matter to Latino households will help the Democrats gain their support in upcoming elections.
"Latinos were undercounted in the Census," says expert.

"Latinos were undercounted in the Census," says expert.

Por Lila Abed (Washington DC)
"The Arizona legislature is trying to suppress the Latino vote because they see the trends that Latinos continue to gain more numbers and therefore more political clout," Joseph Garcia, Director of Public Affairs and International Relations at Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) .
Time to end 'dynastic politics' in the Bronx, council candidate says

Time to end 'dynastic politics' in the Bronx, council candidate says

Por B. Debusmann (Washington DC)
Marcos Sierra says that ending political dynasties from affluent areas of the borough will help attract new Latino and African American voters.
Meet Baltimore's first - and only - Latina city councilperson

Meet Baltimore's first - and only - Latina city councilperson

Por B. Debusmann (Washington DC)
Councilwoman Odette Ramos believes that the city's growing Latino population will become increasingly active in local politics.