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Thread: Here's one data point for how "peruanos en el exterior" voted, using my wife, who is a Peruvian as an example (I am not a Peruvian, but I went with her to the voting place, as I always do). It isn't great.
The election was held at FedEx Field in Maryland, a gigantic venue compared with the 2020 special election, held in a small venue in Washington, DC, and the 2016 and 2011 elections, which were held in a school in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC.
Whereas in the 2016 presidential election we were able to park and get out pretty quickly, there was a wait of about 20 minutes to park today. The parking lots around the stadium are massive, but only one of them was open to voters.
This was the first time that Peruvian security personnel were assisting with the election. They checked DNIs, took everyone's temperature, and told people where to go. I'm not sure if they were PNP or what; the guy on the left is wearing a mask with the shield of the army.
Once in the stadium, my wife ran into a line that didn't move for a long time. After this was taken, more people kept coming in, but the line wasn't moving, and she was uncomfortable with how close everyone began to stand next to each other. Social distancing was not enforced.
Inside, it was obvious that absenteeism among members of the mesa were affecting operations, because the people organizing the election got on a microphone and asked if people would be willing to stay and volunteer to be members of the mesa, which my wife has never seen before.
All in all, passing through security, standing on line, getting her ballot, marking it, casting it, and walking out of the stadium took about an hour and 15 minutes, which is about an hour longer than it took in 2011, despite having a much bigger facility this time around.
Despite being in a stadium, the voting was all done indoors. It's not like anyone was actually out on the field, they were in the hallways and concession stands voting.
Because we're in the midst of a pandemic, and many people in the US (including my wife and myself) still haven't been able to get the first shot of the vaccine, I do worry that plenty of people will ultimately decide it's not worth it to stand around indoors and simply leave.
The situation is even worse in Peru, and given that the polls show several candidates as being extremely close to one another, I think the odds are decent that the candidate in third place will be very close to the candidate in second place and then refuse to concede.
Any third-place candidate could pretty easily argue that the inability of the JNE to get the mesas operational on time affected the outcome of the vote. It might not be a winning argument, but it could sow doubt. This election clearly is far from idea. End of thread.
