2023-05-17 16:22:22
11:06 AM
Colombia might implement the electronic vote at the polls if the new Electoral Code, as stipulated in the current text that is being debated in the Congress of the Republic.
The articles promoted by the Alexander Vega Registry have already been endorsed in its second debate in the senate and now it will go to the House of Representatives, which will have to process two more debates to define the future of the bill.
The document is an update on electoral issues in the country, but its content is controversial because it includes an article that contemplates the electronic voting for electionsboth nationally and regionally.
This means that the traditional ballots in which the preferred candidate is marked with an “X” would go into the background to be replaced by a machine that counts the votes.
The controversy provoked by this system is such that there are voices once morest it both from the government bench of President Gustavo Petro and from the opponents, including legislators from the Democratic Center such as Senator Paloma Valencia.
Senator Angélica Lozano questioned that “electronic voting today in plenary session of the Senate failed to vote on the article that establishes electronic voting in Colombia (fails frequently). The engineers help, they go to each seat and solve, it’s time to wait a few minutes. How will it work in the elections in each municipality?”.
The legislative bid led to adjusting the text with the possibility of mixed vote: whoever wishes might ask for their ballot at the ballot box and those who prefer technological mechanisms would vote through software.
But the possibility of handing over to a computer program the information on the Colombians’ votes is another point under discussion, since this would give teeth to the Registrar’s Office to hire the new technology. At that point, Senator Ariel Ávila ruled that this measure “enables the electoral software business for the questioned registrar Alexander Vega”.
For now, the draft contemplates that the validity of electronic and mixed voting would apply from 2029, which means that There would be no such mechanism for this year’s regional elections or for the 2026 presidential elections.
Senator Carlos Fernando Motoa is one of the defenders of electronic voting and called attention to the fact that “it is not possible that in a modern era, in the 21st century, that we do not offer options to reduce abstentionism, which I am sure that with the vote email we can reduce it. Colombians must overcome technology phobia”.
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