Friday, December 4th, 2009

By J.R. Claeys

We landed safely in La Paz about an hour ago. It is about 2:00 a.m. on Saturday in Bolivia and we have spent the last 20 hours detained in Santa Cruz. The delayed entry caused all of our Friday meetings to be cancelled as we dealt with getting clearance to leave for the capital city. We originally had a direct flight into La Paz, but our flight was forced to land in Santa Cruz, a hotbed of election-related violence we were trying to avoid. The picture above is of a spontaneous crowd that formed when an opposition candidate arrived at the airport where we were detained.

The current president's name has become a type of political party symbol. Instead of naming the party on their signs, many in the party are placing the "EVO" logo on their ads. The current president's name has become a type of political party symbol. Instead of naming the party on their signs, many in the party are placing the "EVO" logo on their ads.

Relations between the United States and the Morales government have been strained. Just one short year ago the ambassador from the United States was kicked out of the country and Peace Corps volunteers were evacuated over security concerns. Just this past week, Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, visited to lend his support to the current leadership.

During our long, and unwanted stay in Santa Cruz I had an opportunity to speak to a Bolivian who lives in the United States and was returning to vote in the elections Sunday. He was eager to tell me about the slow march toward socialism, the high taxes, the redistribution of wealth and power, the nationalization of industries... in the United States.

His good humor added some levity to a tense situation. But, it also begs the question of why I do this when the outcome can be a winner who is ideologically opposite from what I believe. The short answer is that I'm not here to pick a winner, but to assure that the process and the will of the people is respected. It isn't that I don't care or have opinions, but those are set aside on election day to allow the people to decide.

The mission also gives me an opportunity to see how voter identification procedures work on the ground in a real election. New technology can be an amazing and useful tool to combat fraud. In this day and age it isn't so much if we can do it (we usually can), but if we should do it. The biometric voter identification system used in Bolivia is one of the first uses of this technology and we will be there to see it in action, along with photo and signature identification cards.

The job of an observer is much like the duties of the secretary of state in Kansas. The job of chief elections officer is not to influence the outcome, but to assure that every vote is counted; that every voter is registered; and that every registration is valid. That is why I believe in a process that includes photo voter identification and registration security. We must have confidence in our elections to achieve higher turnout and greater civic participation.

Some meetings from Friday were rescheduled for Saturday. We will visit the presidential palace and the legislature to learn more about the many local and regional elections that are taking place on the same ballot.

On a side note, the opposition to Morales could put up a fight if they were to rally around a single conservative candidate. They won't, but they could. The reason they won't is the legislative and local elections taking place. If the minor parties have no one at the top of the ticket, turnout will drop and down-ballot races for those parties will lose potential votes.

» Photo Gallery: Elections Observation Mission