Vote. Or Else.
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Notes From Abroad
November 14, 2008 - 12:00amArmed soldiers in fatigues checked identification as women filed into a school to vote the last weekend of October. Such was the scene in Santiago as I accompanied my Chilean host mother to take part in nationwide municipal elections.
It was a whole different ballgame from its United States counterpart. In mid-September, campaign ads featuring candidates for alcalde (mayor) and consejal (municipal councilmember of sorts) started to pop up. Come mid-October, it was nearly impossible to look anywhere in the country and not see a political poster. In Santiago’s comuna of La Florida, forty-six candidates were on the ballot for the position of alcalde.
Each ad carried a photo of the individual running for office; more often than not, said photo looked like a bad outtake from a passport photo session. Candidates were blinded by an overpowering flash, their skin was green or blue and/or their facial expressions led you to believe they were running for the office of municipal deer-in-headlights.
The propaganda could be seen on trucks, on quarter-cards littering the sidewalks, trailing behind planes over popular beaches and other places you might expect to see advertising. One unusual case that stands out in my mind was at an abandoned home that had been gutted by fire in Santiago’s comuna of La Cisterna. In the place of collapsed walls stood campaign ads mounted on wooden frames.
Chilean law dictated that, come election day, not one piece of political propaganda should be seen anywhere in the country. Starting at midnight, no alcohol is to be served at any kind of establishment in the country.
In the late afternoon on Sunday, I came along with my hurried host mother to witness the process, and she told me on the way that she was rushing because she wanted to avoid being fined 50,000 pesos (approximately $80) by the Chilean government for not voting. In a country where average income hovers around USD $10,000 annually, a fine of that magnitude can make a serious dent in a family’s financial well-being.
Since voting is mandatory for all citizens who are registered to vote, young Chileans see little reason to register; why make yourself subject to such a system when you believe most politicians won’t change anything and don’t care about your demographic?
Additionally, the concept of the absentee ballot is a foreign one. If you won’t be home for election day, you’d better be sending a note to the government letting them know why you won’t be showing up. Otherwise, more fines.
Arriving at the school, we walked past a line of soldiers at the entrance and yet another line of soldiers inside the school’s courtyard. Since voting locations are segregated by sex, I was the only male over the age of four (save for the soldiers). After figuring out which of the fifty or so tables organized by date of voting registration she was supposed to vote at, my host mother picked up a ballot, stepped into a booth and emerged with a completed ballot, which was then crammed into a windowed box in the kindergarten classroom that served as her voting location.
Later, I heard the nightmarish story of my host uncle’s voting experience. He had arrived a few minutes after his voting location had opened, and while giving his name to one of the people sitting at his respective table, he was told that he was supposed to be behind the table, checking off names, handing out ballots, etc.
This is a country that lacks jury duty (and therefore, juries), but has mandated election duty, in which citizens have to sit behind a table for the entire day, and count that table’s votes before heading home. According to my host mother, nobody wants to voluntarily do that, so the government has made it mandatory. Had my host uncle shown up later, he would have not only been fined, but detained by the Carabineros (Chile’s national police force) and then fined. He had been paying attention to the web and newspaper announcements with the names of those unlucky enough to serve, but since not all names were announced at once, he had missed the list that contained his name.
Evening news reports showed comical interviews of people being pulled away by soldiers and Carabineros after not feeling like fulfilling their duty as a citizen. Democracy in action, or democracy inaction?