Venezuela: Everything you need to know about the precious tally sheets

‘Our weapons are the tally sheets,’ Venezuelans cry

Originally published on Global Voices

Nicolás Maduro's contested win over Edmundo González Urrutia in Venezuela's July 28 presidential elections has put the spotlight on the capacity of public data to officially endorse or deny any real result of the elections.

Since 2006, the Venezuelan electoral system is based on automation: secret ballots in machines, encrypted electronic transmission of results to the electoral body, and publication on the web portal of the National Electoral Council (CNE), the governing body of the Venezuelan elections.

But not everything goes according to the law. Days after July 28, the opposition — represented by the candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado — disputed the CNE's awarding the election to Maduro. Latin American governments from different parts of the political spectrum, the Carter Center (the accredited international electoral body in Venezuela for the presidential election), among others, rejected them as well.

They all call for transparency in the results and the publication of the original tally sheets. They are the fundamental proof needed to confirm or challenge an electoral result, according to Venezuelan legislation.

The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, said on X (formerly Twitter):

El régimen de Maduro debe entender que los resultados que publica son difíciles de creer. La comunidad internacional y sobre todo el pueblo venezolano, incluyendo a los millones de venezolanos en el exilio, exigimos total transparencia de las actas y el proceso, y que veedores…

— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric) July 29, 2024

The Maduro regime must understand that the results it publishes are difficult to believe. The international community and especially the Venezuelan people, including the millions of Venezuelans in exile, demand total transparency of the minutes and the process, and that international observers not committed to the government account for the veracity of the results.

From Chile we will not recognize any result that is not verifiable.

How do Venezuelans vote?

According to Venezuelan electoral law, voters cast their votes in machines located at tables or boxes located in places chosen for this purpose (schools or community centers, for example). Each person registered in the Electoral Registry (voting is not mandatory) must come with their national ID card or identification document and cast an individual and secret vote at the machine, which prints a ballot or receipt to be deposited in a closed box.

The ballot issued by each machine and deposited by the voter in the box is part of a process called “citizen verification.” This also includes the random opening of one or more boxes in each electoral center. Still, the physical tally sheet is the fundamental piece for the audit of any verdict.

What is a tally sheet and why does it matter?

At the end of election day in Venezuela, each of the groups of witnesses must legally receive a long record or vertical strip — popularly known as “chorizo” (“sausage”) — printed on paper, with the total results per polling station.

The tally sheet summarizes the votes in an orderly manner by candidate and political party. Each document has unique identifiers: a hash code, a QR code, plus the electronic signatures of the people who interact with the voters at the polling station.

According to the electoral law in force in Venezuela, the following actors present at the polling station had to receive printed copies of each tally sheet:

1. The so-called “table witnesses” of the different parties in dispute (called Witnesses A and B in the example minutes). The table could have respective witnesses favorable to Nicolás Maduro as well as others to Edmundo González Urrutia and other candidates.
2. The polling station members drawn by the CNE (called in advance from the voter registry) and responsible for managing the machine and documentation of the polling station.
3. The operator or technician of the electoral machine, assigned by the CNE.
4. Military participants in the Republic Plan (military bodies intervene in the Venezuelan elections for the custody of electoral material).

The tally sheets is the fundamental element for any challenge by the candidates. The Venezuelan journalist Eugenio Martínez, specialized in elections for more than 20 years, published the way to verify the authenticity of the minutes in his own infographic:

Existe interés en provocar una “guerra de actas” Acá les dejo varias comprobaciones que servirían para detectar un acta real de una irregular. Claro, si este proceso lo va a realizar el TSJ/CNE deben estar presentes técnicos independientes y veedores electorales pic.twitter.com/BICZinY1Qw

— Eugenio G. Martínez (@puzkas) July 31, 2024

There is interest in provoking a “war of tally sheets.” Here I leave several checks that would serve to detect a real tally sheet from an irregular one. Of course, if this process is going to be carried out by the TSJ/CNE, independent technicians and electoral observers must be present.

Where are the tally sheets of the presidential election?

From July 28 until the date of publication of this article, the website of the CNE was offline, without showing any results. Despite this, Nicolás Maduro received official accreditation as the winner of the contest by the electoral body.

In the absence of official data, the coalition favorable to candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and opposition leader María Corina Machado (called Comando Con Venezuela) presented, in the night of Monday, July 29, the tally sheets obtained by opposition witnesses. These were published on an independent portal named “Presidential Results 2024,” open to consultation by any internet user with their Venezuelan identity card.

An alternate portal from Comando Con Venzuela, called “Results With Vzla,” uses data visualization tools from the tally sheets compiled by the first portal.

The opposition coalition published the tally sheets from the copies its witnesses collected at the polling stations and requested the contributions of additional citizens due to difficulties in obtaining tally sheets at some tables during the vote.

Citizen witnesses compared their physical tally sheets with those that were digitized on these websites to make sure the numbers were correct. Then they showed them on social networks.

Mi acta coincide completamente con la verificación ciudadana en mi centro electoral mesa (1) Maduro 181 Edmundo 415 como en toda Venezuela la tendencia es irreversible pic.twitter.com/8VH9fikZm8

— Emanuel Oquendo (@EOquEndoP) July 30, 2024

My report completely coincides with the citizen verification at my polling station (1) Maduro 181 Edmundo 415, as in all of Venezuela, the trend is irreversible

Citizen transparency in progress

Gabriela Mesones Rojo, journalist and collaborator of Global Voices, believes that Venezuelan citizens support the opposition's recount initiative because of the emergence of a “culture of open publication” of tally sheets. She says:

Como no hay una transparencia electoral, los ciudadanos decidieron: hagamos nosotros nuestra transparencia electoral.

Since there is no electoral transparency, the citizens decided: let's make our electoral transparency.

As of early morning of August 1, 2024, the website of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela remains offline, and the opposition initiative claims to already have 24,576 records from all over the country (81.85 percent of the vote).

Written by Estefanía Salazar Translated by Ameya Nagarajan · View original post [es]