Last Sunday I had to go to vote, yes, I had to. Unlike in the US, voting is mandatory in Peru. Not exercising your right to vote results in a fine, which will vary depending on the district the elector is from.
As just a voter, it isn’t much of a difficult choice if you don’t have time or just don’t want to vote since the fine is around 80.00 soles, approximately $23.00 (I am not disencouraging people to go to vote, I was just incredibly busy that day and would have prefered not to go), but if on top of not showing up to vote, you are chosen as a miembro de mesa, the fine is more than twice as much and in this case I was.
What is a miembro de mesa?
When explaining this to my Colombian colleague, she said they had the same concept in her country, they are called jurado de votación. Then I started thinking, how do you say miembro de mesa in English? Does that even exist? If voting isn’t mandatory in the U.S, is there such a thing as a chosen citizen to make sure everything runs smoothly on election day?
I become interested in the differences and similarities between elections in the US and Perú, here are my findings:
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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN THE US AND PERÚ |
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| How the president is chosen | The president and vice president are in effect chosen through indirect election by the citizens.
*An indirect election is an election in which voters do not choose between candidates for an office, but elect people who then choose. In this case this body of electors is called The United States Electoral College. |
The president and vice president are in effect chosen through direct election by the citizens. |
| The winner | Candidate wins with 270 electoral votes, from the 538 electors that constitute the Electoral College. | Candidate that gets more than 50% of the votes wins. |
| Frequency | Congressional and presidential elections take place simultaneously every four years. | Congressional and presidential elections take place simultaneously every five years. |
| Obligatory nature | Voting isn’t mandatory.
*About half of all states and U.S. territories allow “no excuse absentee” where no reason is required to request an absentee ballot. Others require a valid reason, such as infirmity or travel, be given before a voter can participate using an absentee ballot. |
Voting is mandatory.
The concept of absentee ballot doesn’t exist. |
| Registration process | There is a voter registration process. All U.S. states except North Dakota require that citizens who wish to vote be registered. | There isn’t such a thing. Everybody has to go to vote on election day. |
| Electronic voting system | Most states use a combination of electronic and paper technology. Only five states (Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, South Carolina) have paper-free voting and some states (Colorado, Oregon, and Washington) send all constituents a paper ballot in the mail. Even more states use a combination of electronic and paper at polling places. | Only a few districts use electronic voting. |
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SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN THE US AND PERÚ |
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| Duration | Election for the U.S. President must occur on a single day throughout the country. | |
| Elegibility | Candidates must be at least 35 years old, a natural born citizen of the country they want to govern. | |
| Runoff | If no candidate receives a required number of votes then there is a runoff between the two candidates with the most votes. | |
More about electronic voting
There are three types of Electronic voting in USA :
- The Paper based E vote system has a touchscreen added for the voter’s used. This system will print a hardcopy of the ballot once the voter is done. This ballot needs to be passed out the election officer so it can be counted.
- The Direct recording electronic system has a touchscreen with digital swipe card buttons which will be used in order to make the choices. All votes are stored in a physical memory device which are sent to a special voting station for their results.
- Internet voting is the type of vote that is done in remote locations. This type of voting service is not supervised by governmental representatives. The most common devices to used for this type of vote are: Personal computer, Television via Internet also known as i-voting and mobile phone.
What do I wish we would copy from the American election process?
That’s an easy answer: instant-runoff voting. For the past few years in Perú there have been runoffs and with them an increasing amount of stress and frustration to do it all over again. In a few cities in the US. voters rank the candidates in order of preference rather than voting for a single candidate. If a candidate secures more than half of votes cast, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Ballots assigned to the eliminated candidate are recounted and assigned to those of the remaining candidates who rank next in order of preference on each ballot.
I would love to know what the election process is like in your country. Share in the comments!
New and related words:
absentee ballot (voto en ausencia), ballot, candidate, Election Assistance Commission, electoral college, electronic voting, runoff, paper ballot, paperless voting, poll, voter registration
WeSpeak Idiomas 
In Romania the president is elected in a two-round system for a five-year term in direct elections .If one candidate obtains a majority of 50%+1 of all registered voters in the first round, he or she is declared the winner. If none of the candidates achieve this, then a runoff is held between the two contenders with the top scores in the first round. The candidate who obtains any majority of votes in the runoff is declared the winner and he or she can serve a maximum of two terms, that may be consecutive.
The President must be a romanian citizen and must be at least 35 years old.
The members of an electoral bureau are volunteers. They have to go through a selection process. If they are elected, they are hired for 5 days and will be paid out of taxpayers’ money…so obviouly it’s not mandatory
Irrespective of the type of election, the vote is done by using paper and manual counting. The voter is required to prove his/hers identity using the Identity card.
After voting the citizens get a sticker on their Identity Cards with a L for local election or PE for European Parliament elections, and from time to time an R for Referendum.
Despite the fact that several European democracies mandate voting, in Romania isn’t mandatory.
A lot of people don’t vote because, since the only thing you can do by voting is to choose the smallest evil among all the other evil options printed on the ballot paper, why bother?
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