“This voting system is worse than a banana republic voting system.”
I have heard this cliché so many times, I have to respond. I live in Honduras, the epitome of a “banana republic”. At least you get to vote, I don’t. I’m an American citizen, and there are rules for expat voting, but they don’t seem to work this year. I followed the new voting laws recently put into effect for citizens abroad, applied to the Department of State for an application register in my home state of Arizona. Citizens living outside the US now have to re-register every year. They said they would send me an application within one month of the election, and that I just need to wait for it to arrive, fill it out, send it by snail mail to the Arizona Secretary of State. Arizona is to send me an application for registration, which I must again send my snail mail within three weeks of the election. They then send me a ballot by email which I fill out and AGAIN send by snail mail, and if it gets there too late, it will not be counted. That is an impossible task, but it is moot because I applied more than six months ago and never heard back from the Department of State. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that I’m registered as a Republican.
The following is a copy of a post I made recently about the “banana republic” voting process. Some of you will remember it:
“Mention was made that the US, because of corruption and voter fraud, is devolving into a “banana republic”. I had the opportunity to go watch my wife, a citizen of Honduras, vote in last year’s presidential election in Tegucigalpa. It was a real eye-opener, and I can only wish the US had such a strict voting process.
Everyone in Honduras is required to vote in the precinct which is indicated on their government issued (free) photo ID card. Every citizen over 18 is required to have an national ID, and everyone with an ID can vote. No one else, and no one is registered as a member of a certain party, merely a citizen. My wife’s precinct is Barrio El Bosque, so she was required to go to the Escuela de 14 de Julio (local elementary school) if she wanted to vote.
When we arrived at the voting place there were hundreds of people milling around the street and a long line was waiting to enter. The entire scene was closely watched over by Army and Policía Nacionál to make sure order was kept. For the most part everything was quite orderly, and people were polite to each other even with the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. After showing ID, passing the guard and entering the school we went to the main table in the courtyard where they ran her ID through a computer and she was given a little slip of paper that indicated her name, her precinct, her “mesa” (voting area) and “linea” number (her number on the voter registration list). Every citizen is automatically registered to vote, and their name, Id photo and precinct number is on a list posted in that precinct.
The “mesas” in this case are rooms in the school, numbered in order to handle the hundreds of people waiting to vote. Her mesa was number 8586, so after finding the room, there was a list of all registered voters beside the door. She checked her line number with photo, 235, to make sure she is at the right door, the man watching the door checked her ID against the list, and let her in. She went to the table inside the room for a ballot, was checked again for ID and compared it to the info and photo in the registry, was given two ballots, one for president and one for congress, and this time they held her ID while she voted. I was allowed in as a foreign observer, but was not able to go near the voting booth, itself. Voting booths made of cardboard were set up on school tables for privacy, so after voting she deposited her ballots in the appropriate boxes, was given her ID back and we left.
I wanted to take photos but no cameras were allowed anywhere but in the street. No alcohol is sold anywhere in Honduras from Saturday through Monday, the day before and the day after election.
They take voter ID, and potential vote fraud, VERY seriously. All ballots are paper, and all have the candidate’s info and photo. There are eight official parties in Honduras, and the one with the most votes wins. The police and the army watch the voting very closely. One woman was caught with an extra ballot, and was immediately arrested. The Honduras news media, which is quite politically unbiased, indicated that both local and official foreign observers found only three cases of vote fraud in the entire country.
It was certainly an eye-opener for me! If this is the difference between a the US and a Banana Republic, then I’ll take a banana republic election anytime.”
Thank you for an eye opening account about election process in your “banana republic”. You obviously have learned to clean up elections. Democrats in USA do not want elections cleaned up. That is understandable because that keeps them in power. But it is harder to understand why republicans do nothing about it when they are in power on rare occasions. GWB had congress majorities, and did nothing.
Your post regarding voting process in Honduras was an eye opener! With your permission, I can post it as a separate thread .