What sanctions are planned for the table authorities who are absent in the 2023 elections?

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On August 13, the Primary, Open, Simultaneous and Mandatory elections (PASO) will be held throughout the country. That day, at 8 in the morning, the electoral day will begin and at each table of each voting center, various fundamental actors for the process must be present. The most important is the table president, who is the highest authority.

But what is its importance? What happens if you don’t go to the polling place on Election Day? Are there sanctions? How are the elections going?

The role of the board president

The citizen who has been appointed president of the polling station must ensure the normal development of the election at the polling station that corresponds to him. Without this authority, voting cannot be opened at that table. There may or may not be party prosecutors, but the table president cannot be absent.

The table presidents are citizens randomly designated among the electorate, although their suitability is also prioritized. Fulfilling that designation is not optional. “Compulsory nature is based on the same principle of voting: a right brings obligations. That is why it is mandatory, if it is your turn, to be the president of the table. It is a republican duty,” Facundo Cruz, a member of the Center for Research for Democratic Quality (CICaD) and author of the newsletter La Gente Vota, explained to Reverso.

However, there are some exceptions that allow people to excuse themselves from this role. We review them below.

What does the law say about the appointment and excuse of table authorities

The National Electoral Code establishes that the federal court with electoral jurisdiction of each province must appoint the presidents and substitutes “with no less than 30 days prior to the date of the primary elections, and must ratify such designation for the general elections.” The elected board authority must also appear in the register of the board for which it is designated.

After being notified, the selected people have three days to excuse themselves from carrying out this task, but they can only “invoke duly justified reasons of illness or force majeure,” according to the Code. After the three days, excuses are only allowed for reasons that occurred later. Performing functions of organization or management of a political party or being a candidate is also grounds for excuse.

For allegations of illness, the Code establishes more specific requirements: “Only certificates issued by national, provincial or municipal health doctors, in that order, will be valid.” If that is not possible, the certification by a private doctor is enabled, although the electoral justice can verify its validity.

Despite the 30-day advance notice established by the Code for the appointment and notification of polling station authorities, in April 2023 the National Electoral Chamber brought this deadline forward to 65 days before the elections, in order to “resolve the substitutions sufficiently in advance.” and allow an “instance of effective training of designated persons.”

As reported to Reverso from the Chamber, the appointments depend on the federal courts with electoral jurisdiction in each province, so there is no single date for notification to those appointed.

What penalties does the law provide for table presidents who do not attend?

Article 132 of the National Electoral Code establishes penalties of 6 months to 2 years for officials and “for voters designated for the performance of duties who, without just cause, stop going to the place where they must fulfill them or abandon them.” That is to say that, in the longest sentence provided, because it is less than three years, the sentence is subject to conditional compliance (it is left in abeyance while the conditions imposed by the judge are met).

The polling station president and the substitute have the obligation to be at the voting center during the entire election day, especially at the opening and closing of the election. “When replacing each other, officials will leave a written record of the time they take up and leave office,” says article 76 of the Code.

If the designated polling station president does not attend the polling station on election day, the electoral justice delegate at that school must establish some “contingency procedure.” In 2014, the National Electoral Chamber issued an agreement in which it defined the functions of the delegates. Among other powers, the agreement established that, in the absence of the polling station authorities, the delegate must “instrument the mechanism indicated by the respective Electoral Secretariat to proceed to replace him.”

These mechanisms are not exhaustively established in the National Electoral Code, but there are some solutions that are more common than others. “If the president is not there, the first one who arrives to vote gets it due to citizen obligation. The Electoral Command on site makes the decision,” Cruz said. The replacement can also be done with postal personnel assisted by the Electoral Command.

To minimize absenteeism, the Chamber ordered this year that there be three authorities (a president, a member and a substitute) in the even tables and two (a president and a member) in the odd ones. “That is, five table authorities for every two tables,” indicated the court in Agreed 46/2023.

In that same decision, the Chamber warned: “It is necessary to remember – and let the citizens know at the time of notification – that the designation as authority of a polling station constitutes an inalienable public charge. That is to say, it is a legal obligation – which expresses a non-delegable civic duty – which cannot be declined and whose non-compliance is criminally sanctioned”.

This note is part of Reverso, the collaborative journalistic project coordinated by Chequeado and AFP that unites media and technology companies to intensify the fight against disinformation during the electoral campaign. The contact ways to join are: by email to [email protected], by WhatsApp and /ReversoAr on all networks.