- Jennifer McCoy ,director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program (Source: www.untintenacional.org)
High voter turnout; quick tallying and delivery of official results, their acceptance by the candidates and the population alike; the reinforcement of the citizens’ trust on the voting system – all of these aspects were highlighted by the Carter Center in their report addressing the October 7h 2012 election process, titled “Study Mission to Venezuelan Elections”.
According to the study by the NGO, which focuses its efforts on global peace and health, the voter turnout reached more than 80% of the voters, “the highest level since voting was made voluntary in the 1999 Constitution”. It’s worth noting that voting in Venezuela is a right, not a mandatory duty.
The NGO also remarked the acceptance of results by the main political figures and the electorate
The Carter Center report, which can be read by clicking this link, highlighted the functionality of the automated system, its impact on the electoral process and the voters’ trust on it. This trust, according to the research, increased “due to the constant appeals to the electorate to go vote made by both candidates, as well as to the widespread participation of representatives of the political parties in both the pre-election preparations and the audits to the automated voting system scheduled by the National Electoral Council (CNE)”.
The Carter Center reaffirmed in this report that the “Venezuelan voting system is one of the most automated systems in the world”, stating that the voting machines have been proved secure “with the validation of technicians of the political parties and national observers, who participated in the audits to the platform and who have witnessed both triumphs and defeats during the past 5 national elections”.