I voted this morning without much of a wait, took my mother and waited for her and then voted and took her home.
As I was going in a girl in front of me had a University sweater from Simon Bolivar University, yellow in color, said USB in the back and front and had the slogan of the University. The National Guardsman told her she could not go in wearing it because it was propaganda. She complained that it was only her university’s logo and a higher ranking guardsman came out and told her she had to take it off to go in. She had a t-shirt under it and took it off. What was funny was that by the end of her vote she was carrying around her waist and you could see the logos any way. I guess being a university student has become a no no, you are subversive, opposition, oligarch and enemy of the State.
The second problem I saw firsthand is that the voting machines are not programmed properly. When you press on your choice, a check mark appears. But, for example, my mother kept her finger on her choice (guess?) and the check would appear and disappear. When she first removed her finger, the check was not there and she had to press again. This caused problems and those that pressed “VOTE” without the check present their vote was void and there was no going back. However, major Chavista political figures that had this happened to them, like Tarek William Saab and Aristobulo Isturiz, were allowed to vote twice in another sign of Government advantage.
In my polling table there were 520 voters, of which 182 had voted by noon, which is a sign of high abstention. In that table, 5 people (1%) had already voted void because of this problem and were not allowed to vote twice.
I went around the city and saw no lines anywhere, the procedure is simple, but only in 2007 have there been no lines like this. Below some pictures:
Above left, I tried to take a picture of this guy voting with the wooden cross behind him, but when I was about to take it the guard said I could not, I did anyway, but the guy had moved. I vote in a Catholic school, thus the cross. You can interpret it either way, the cross will protect the vote or we will be crucified. On the right above a voting center in the highly populated area of Los Dos Caminos, a middle to lower middle class area.
On the left above a voting center off the Redoma de Petare in the extreme East of Caracas. On the right, a voting center in Montecristo a lower middle class area.
I will report later today as needed, I think it is going to be a long night with polls closing at 6 PM.
