07/24/2021 11:28 AM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 07/24/2021 11:28 AM
The electoral judge of La Plata and member of Legitimate Justice Alejo Ramos Padilla limited the age for the polling station authorities in the elections in the province of Buenos Aires
between 22 and 55 years,
although the electoral law allows it to be up to 70.
In a resolution, Ramos Padilla established that controversial limit "in order to
reduce
the number of people of risk age due to COVID-19 infection."
Some 74 thousand table authorities will be needed in the province.
As soon as the resolution was known, the critics appeared.
The deputy of Juntos por el Cambio, Mónica Frade, stated on Twiiter that "the electoral judge, Ramos Padilla, has already started with his
first electoral outrage
."
“Limits up to 55 years who can be table authorities.
It seems that he also defines scientific criteria, above with premonitory whims.
Disguise 'judge'
”, added Frade of the CC-ARI of Elisa Carrió.
In this sector they suspect that Ramos Padilla
thus
seeks to
favor young people who, although they are not militant, but are, from an ideological point of view, close to La Cámpora
and leave out the adults where the opposition has more votes.
As an electoral judge, he had already taken other controversial measures.
First, he authorized Máximo Kirchner to assume the presidency of the PJ of Buenos Aires without internal elections and despite objections from the internal opposition.
Then he asked for international observers for the elections in the province and the electoral chamber rejected it.
In his resolution, the magistrate explained that “the random selection of voters from the register who will serve as polling station authorities has been advanced, the
maximum age parameters
of preference
have been lowered
in order to reduce the number of people at risk age –By contagion of COVID-19- that the computer system could select randomly and digital procedures have been incorporated in order to process the excuses of the designated desk authorities ”.
The judge relied on an agreement of the national electoral chamber that held that “reasons of prudence advise, given the state of the pandemic to date, to
limit the age range
of selection in order to avoid that the designations fall on voters who make up the age groups that show higher levels of contagion or risk associated with the contagion of COVID-19 ″. The court
did not set
age limits, however.
In addition, Ramos Padilla asked the Argentine Mail "to
shorten
the deadlines for distribution and delivery of notifications" to the polling station authorities designated to perform in the open, simultaneous and mandatory primary elections (PASO) on September 12, with the aim of to be able to expedite the replacements that are necessary.
In the resolution, the magistrate asked the Official Post Office of the Argentine Republic "to shorten the deadlines for the arrival at destination of the telegrams of appointment of the table authorities, not being able to extend beyond 48 hours from the delivery of the postal items. by the Electoral Secretariat until their arrival at their final destination ".
At the same time, Ramos Padilla required that "
two visits be made
to the homes where the postal staff was not attended, and the corresponding notice must be left."
It also considered that "the time that elapses between the moment of delivery to the Post Office of the postal items in which the table authorities are designated for their distribution and the moment of their return is extremely long" and graphs that, in some cases , "returns are received after the electoral act, which prevents generating replacements."
For this reason, it also asked the Post to deliver a daily digital report "detailing the telegrams that were not delivered, for reasons such as moving, non-existent address or similar, in order to speed up the replacement of said designations."
In the resolution, it was noted that the definitive registry of the province of Buenos Aires for this year's elections was made up of 12,704,518 eligible voters, who were distributed in
36,917 voting tables.
There, two electors must serve as authorities -president and member- for which the presence of 73,834 voters is necessary "to fulfill this function adequately."
The magistrate recalled that "historically the province of Buenos Aires has registered a very high percentage of absenteeism of table authorities designated by the electoral justice."
Thus, he charted that in the 2019 national elections, 72,782 polling station authorities were appointed and 36,392 polling stations were enabled and he highlighted that "by virtue of the number of telegram returns and excuses, 41,874 replacement telegrams were released (57.53 were replaced % of those appointed) ".
Finally, Ramos Padilla stated, "37.71% of the polling stations functioned with a single authority and, ultimately, the total number of authorities that actually served was 45,343, a figure that includes all those authorities that were designated in the days prior to the election or the same day of the election by the Post ".
"The foregoing means that on the day of the vote, citizens who have come to cast their vote end up performing the function of table authority without prior training, without verification of the quality of affiliate and without foresight on the part of the designated voter. to carry out said public charge, "the judge analyzed.
