Voting
Polling stations (which, since 2012, are mixed-sex) are, in most cases, schools and sporting centers. The armed forces and uniformed police (Carabineros) are in charge of providing security to these places before, during, and after the elections.
For Chileans, a non-expired national identity card or passport is the only document required to vote. Foreigners need to carry their identity card for foreigners in order to vote. The vote is secret and in person. Before voting, the voter must give out their identity card or passport (which is retained during the process) to verify they are registered at that particular polling place and then sign a registration book. The voter is then given the ballot(s) and enters a voting booth where they must mark their choice by drawing a vertical line over a printed horizontal line next to their candidate of choice by using a previously provided graphite pencil. Ballots are pre-printed with all the candidate names, their ballot number and their party affiliation. The marking of two or more choices nullifies the vote. A vote is considered "blank" when no candidate was correctly marked. The voter then places the ballot(s) inside the appropriate ballot box(es).
Read more about this topic: Elections In Chile
Famous quotes containing the word voting:
“Common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon—destroying ignorance, poverty and despair before they can destroy us. A nation that doesn’t read much doesn’t know much. And a nation that doesn’t know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box and the voting booth...The challenge, therefore, is to convince future generations of children that carrying a book is more rewarding than carrying guns.”
—Jim Trelease (20th century)
“Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting.”
—Tom Stoppard (b. 1937)