Voting In Costa Rica and In The United States of America.

    Last tuesday I had the opportunity to observe the local political elections in the polling center located in Davies center at UWEC.  This process remained me in certain way and made compare it with the political elections in Costa Rica.  As well as The United States, Costa Rica is a democratic republic. In Both countries, suffrage is universal at age of 18.

    During the elections here the enviroment was really quiet. Usually, in Costa Rica it is very quiet too. 

For most of the people in both countries suffrage is a very important civil duty.  Here, the first step before voting is to present your personal ID.  Then, people receive a very long ballot that includes all the different political categories to be elected.  In Costa Rica, we usually receive 3 different ballots and they are not as long as the ones here.  Besides, in my country ballots include a picture of the person and a description of the party.  Another difference I saw is that in America, all the private polling places are so close one to another in a line.  In Costa Rica, they are separated by a distance of at least 5 meters.

In addition, here there is a machine for the people who want to vote electronically.  In Costa Rica, we do not have that system and probable we are not going to implement this technology in the coming years.  Besides after voting, here people deposit their ballots in a machine that count the votes.  In Costa Rica, after voting ballots are deposited in separated cardboard boxes.  When the election process finishes, votes are counted manually, so it takes more time to know the final results.

    During the process, I was surprised because some people who were supposed to vote in another polling place came Davies and registered to vote there.  I was wondering how goverment can avoid fraud if citizens can register twice? so I ask a lady who was there.  She explain me that penalties for people who commit fraud are really serious such as going to jail.

    It was really interesting to observe the political elections process and learn a little bit more about how people select their leaders in the United States.