Fourth election with a single ballot and a box that confuses

Córdoba will elect its governor for the fourth time with a single ballot (BUS), the voting mechanism that, because it is in paper format, is considered the most economical, transparent and democratic. However, the “complete list vote” box persists in its design, highlighted in black and with the photo of the main candidate, a scheme that continues to generate errors when voting, as indicated by the data.

In 2011, at the debut of the BUS, the difference in valid votes between the candidates for governor and legislators on the broadsheet list was 336,045. In concrete examples: while José Manuel de la Sota garnered 766,400 votes, his legislators reached 565,200, that is, 201,200 less. The same thing happened to Luis Juez: he, 532,200 votes; the legislators of him, 378,300. And also the radical candidate Oscar Aguad: 412,140 people from Cordoba voted for him as governor, but the radical candidates for the Legislature totaled 350,210.

Four years later, the BUS was redesigned, although the controversial locker was maintained. Once again, there were bulk errors: the valid votes for the governor and vice-president section were 1,863,355 while those valid for the single-district legislator section were 1,624,606, that is, a lag of 238,479 votes between two sections that should not have so pronounced cut.

In that election, Juan Schiaretti was elected with 745,000 votes, but his legislators gathered 599,000, 19 percent less. Oscar Aguad reaped 629,000, while the list of legislators headed by Daniel Juez reached 532,000, 15 percent less; and Eduardo Accastello added 320,000 wills, while his applicants for the Legislature achieved 253,000, 21 percent less.

In 2019, with the opposition once again fragmented, the valid votes for governor were 1,920,627, but for legislators they were 1,647,532, that is: 273,095 less. Once again, the loss was for all spaces: Schiaretti reached the historic count of 1,101,960 votes, but the sheet list was far behind, with 878,123; Mario Negri supported his wealth with 326,101, although the legislators added 294,360; and Ramón Mestre garnered 222,826 votes, some more than the 205,186 obtained by the radical sheet.

2023, the fourth time

Without being aware of these data, and despite the opinion of experts on electoral issues who recommend eliminating that box, the BUS design retains the highlight in black next to the main candidate: a mark in that box implies voting for the rest of the line.

In the case of the BUS that will be used in the city of Córdoba, only box nine, which corresponds to Unión Popular Federal, does not have the “complete list” option.

In the rest of the departments, this design makes the disadvantage more noticeable: in General Roca, Sobremonte and Minas, eight lists do not have the prominent option of “complete list”; and in Río Seco, Totoral and Tulumba, six lists have this disadvantage. For the cases in which the possibility of voting with a tick does not appear for the entire list, the voter must go through box by box, although none of them is highlighted.

In the case of the 226 towns where a mayor or community chief is elected, the neighborhood stamps (that is, they do not make up a provincial structure) are located at the end of the ballot. For these cases, there is a complete list option, which adds confusion.

In the towns, the militants go from house to house to teach how to “cut”: the concern is that when voting for a candidate for governor from the main forces, which have a local candidate, they do so with a “complete list vote”, and they also mark the “complete list” box in the local section to the neighborhood group: in that case the two votes for mayors are challenged, another example of how the design of the BUS contributes to confusion.