In the upcoming Municipal and Regional elections, scheduled for 27th October, given the sheer number of candidates in each of four categories, the Electoral Service proposes splitting up the voting over two days, Saturday and Sunday. Participation is compulsory, with fines for non-voters.
This is proving to be a highly unpopular option, given that the voting population will have to dedicate an entire weekend to this process. These days will be legal holidays with most of Chile’s commerce closed.
All I will add is that I resent having to give up a whole weekend to sustaining a corrupt system and will vote blank, this time.
I feel sorry for anyone that gets chosen to work the polls for their whole weekend. That would suck.
Also, how is voting mandatory yet again? At least in the past when it was mandatory, you had the choice to register or not. I was automatically registered.
Maybe I misunderstand the question, but afaik once you are on SERVEL’s books, that’s it - you have to vote, it’s not optional. If you can’t vote, you have to obtain a constancia in carabineros.
Electoral info can be checked here, and nearer the voting date, SERVEL will also show where to go to exercise that “democratic obligation”.
When I was first here, registering was optional but voting was mandatory if you were registered. Then in 2012, they registered everyone based on Civil Registry data but made voting optional. That was when I was registered.
Con este cambio legal, ¿Es obligatorio ir a votar?
Recuerde que votar es un instrumento que le permitirá manifestar su voluntad designando a las autoridades que gobernaran, no olvide que votar hará que su voz se escuche.
A partir de esta nueva ley, ya no será obligatorio concurrir a votar y no será necesario excusarse, si no vota.
This government made voting mandatory for the two votes on the constitutional referendums. I guess they decided to keep it that way.
Is the “abroad” choice on the servel website, when one goes to the “change address” form, grayed out because the system knows that this RUN is inside Chile, and this info is interconnected across all of the government databases? No way to input an “abroad” address if you are not actually registered on your way out at a border crossing?
I suppose you could try being cute with a VPN if the idea is to avoid voting. But it could be that SERVEL scrutinizes those changes of electoral address a bit more closely these days. A fraudulent declaration is classified as a crime.
There were certainly parliamentary calls to tighten up the change of address process after suspiciously large movements over the last few years.
Según un oficio del Servel, para las elecciones de 2021 (con cierre en noviembre de 2020), 6.832 electores se cambiaron de comuna para ir a votar en Santiago. En 2022, 32.155 personas se trasladaron desde municipios de todo el país a la céntrica comuna para el Plebiscito del Apruebo y Rechazo, mientras que hasta el 29 de julio de 2023, otras 11.291 personas de 304 comunas decidieron votar en la comuna capital.
