The transparency of Salvadoran elections

It is the eve of El Salvador's fourth presidential election since the end of the civil war in 1992. The former warring factions are now the country's leading political parties. If Mauricio Funes of the FMLN wins, it will mark the country's first transfer of power to a leftist government.

The elections in El Salvador, in my view, have a great deal of transparency. The reason is that the political parties are permitted to have observers, "vigilantes," at every single voting table in the country. They scrutinize each step from the verification that a person's name and ID appears on the election roll, to the counting of the votes. In addition, some 4000 observers, both national and international, have been accredited to watch every step of the process. Besides that, the office of the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDDH), will also have 1500 observers in the field at polling places.

To see how the process works at each individual polling place, you may want to review the instruction booklet which the TSE provides to the poll workers. The booklet covers everything from the setup of the polling tables, to assisting blind voters, to filling out the report of the final vote count for each table.

In simplified form, the process is as follows:

1. Every Salvadoran who is registered to vote is assigned to a polling place in his or her municipality alphabetically. Thus, in San Salvador, you might live in one corner of the city but your polling place might be in the opposite corner of the city because your last name starts with the letter "R" which only votes in one location in San Salvador.

2. At each poll location, there are voting tables, one for every 450 voters. The voter must find her table by locating her name on the electoral roll which is posted at the poll location.

3. The voter approaches the poll location and hands over her DUI (national identity card). The card is matched to the name and photo on the list of voters for that table and the voter receives a ballot and a crayon.

4. The ballot contains the logo of the FMLN and the logo of ARENA. The voter marks an "X" over the logo of the party of her pick for president.

5. The voter then deposits her ballot in the ballot box.

6. The voter signs the voting list to indicate she has voted; she dips her finger in indelible ink to prevent her from voting twice that day; and she receives her DUI back.

7. The polls close at 5 p.m. Every person in line to vote at that time is permitted to cast a ballot.

8. The votes are scrutinized and counted with everyone watching.

Despite this fairly transparent process for casting and counting votes, there are still many warning about the possibility of fraud. The fraud they worry about is the possibility that a political party (usually asserted to be ARENA) will transport in foreigners by the busload who will then cast fraudulent votes. Of course, this would require several things -- first, it requires that the "padron electoral" the list of eligible voters -- must have been compromised and that it has been altered to add fake identities for many foreigners. Second, it requires generating fake national identity cards -- DUIs -- for thousands of foreigners. Third, it requires moving thousands of foreigners into the country to vote with no one noticing. I guess it could happen, and in San Isidro in January it apparently did happen, but I remain skeptical that this could really work on any large scale without being detected.

Tomorrow we will see how the process works out in reality. I'll be blogging throughout the day and as the results come in. Please send me your reports of what you are observing throughout election day. Let's hope for an overwhelming turnout and a peaceful election day.