International
Waiting game: US election results could take days
| By AFP | Paul Handley |
Control of the US Congress is at stake Tuesday as Americans vote nationwide, but with key races expected to be close, and possible delays and court challenges, results might not be known for days.
Political tensions could rise as the days, or weeks, roll on without a certain winner.
Some national TV networks, using complex calculations based on early results and traditional voting patterns, will likely declare winners on the evening of election night.
But though highly accurate, these projected results are limited by the number of races deemed “too-close-to-call.”
The crucial answer to whether Democrats or Republicans capture the US Senate — currently evenly divided — could take an especially long time.
Pollster predictions suggest the 100-member body could end up evenly divided, or split by two seats.
Counting votes takes time for several reasons, but since the 2020 election — which loser Donald Trump continues to claim, without evidence, was marred by fraud — the process has become more politically fraught.
In Arizona, where political tempers are high, Secretary of State Katie Hobbes, the Democratic candidate for governor, said they were preparing for possible violence.
“Certainly given what we saw in 2020 and the aftermath, the amount of harassment and threats that election officials have been subjected to since then, and the ramping up that we’ve seen in the last several weeks leading to this election, we’re certainly prepared for that,” she said.
Mail-in ballots
Americans can vote on the official election day in polling places equipped with electronic tabulation machines.
But the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated a shift to voting early in polling places and by mail.
Mail-in votes take longer to count, because they must be removed from envelopes, a labor-intensive process at scale.
In some states, voters have until election day to actually post their mail-in ballots, which then might not arrive for several days.
Votes cast by Americans living overseas, including many in the military, might not arrive and be counted until after election day. Though those numbers are relatively small, in a close race, they could be critical.
According to University of Florida Professor Michael McDonald’s US Elections Project, as of midday Tuesday, 45.8 million early votes had been cast, of them 25.4 million by mail or placed in drop boxes.
States have different rules on when mail-in votes can be processed — removed from the envelopes and checked against voter rolls — and when they can be counted.
In nine states, like Pennsylvania, where there is a very close Senate race, the ballots cannot be processed until election day. Sixteen states do not allow mail-in votes to be counted until after the polls have closed on Tuesday.
That means processing and counting can go on well past election day — in 2020, the results in some crucial swing states were not known for three days.
Georgia runoff
Control of the Senate might not be decided at all on Tuesday. In Georgia, Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock are running neck-and-neck for a Senate seat.
But a third candidate, Libertarian Chase Oliver, could earn enough votes to prevent either Warnock or Herschel from topping the 50 percent threshold, and force a runoff between the two.
In the 2020 elections, a similarly close race in Georgia kept overall control of the Senate undecided until a runoff took place in early January 2021. This year, a runoff would take place in December.
Recounts, legal challenges
Very close races can result in mandatory recounts, usually when candidates are divided by less than 0.5 percent of the total vote.
With eight Senate races appearing very close, that could add days of suspense to the overall result.
In addition, the 2020 election showed that parties are willing to turn to the courts to contest close elections, to decide on which ballots can be counted, to challenge counting processes and to question the accuracy of tabulation machinery.
Dozens of lawsuits have already been filed around the country, many of which focus on which ballots can or cannot be counted.
In Pennsylvania, there is already a court battle brewing on whether unsigned or incorrectly dated mail-in votes can be counted.
International
Details of medical transfer of leader Milagro Sala revealed
September 29 |
Argentine media published Friday details of the upcoming transfer of social leader Milagro Sala, who is serving house arrest in Jujuy, to a hospital in the province of La Plata to undergo medical treatment that would save her life.
Since December 2022 Sala had been demanding to undergo surgery to treat the thrombosis that keeps her in a delicate state, but this intervention can only be performed in four clinics in her country, none of which are located in Jujuy.
This Thursday, the criminal enforcement judge of that province, Carlos Cattán, signed the permission for Sala’s transfer to the Italian Hospital of La Plata. The magistrate entrusted her lawyers with her transfer and security, said her lawyer Alejandra Cejas.
The indigenous leader will travel between October 3 and 5, accompanied by her medical and legal team. She will do so aboard a medical plane because her health would not tolerate a road trip. She will travel without anklets or prison staff custody.
In La Plata, she will be in charge of the criminal enforcement judge with jurisdiction in the area of the Hospital Italiano and her police custody will be assumed by the Patronato de Liberados de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.
He will remain at the Hospital Italiano for about three weeks, where he will have between one and three stents placed to treat the thrombosis and the obstruction in the vena cava of his left leg. He will then undergo another 20-30 days of postoperative care, in a place not far from the health institution.
According to Ceja, Judge Cattan based his decision on the right to health and the humanitarian issue, thus weighing the right to life above any other right. In the opinion of the jurist, the Prosecutor’s Office, which until this moment had emphatically opposed to Sala receiving this treatment, ran out of arguments to sustain such position.
She asserted that the governor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales, the architect of the unjust convictions of Sala, could not prevent Cattán’s ruling because at this moment he does not have the same influence over the justice system that he had before the popular protests that began in that province last June, when he enacted a reform in the local Magna Carta that provoked intense protests and was later declared unconstitutional.
Ceja affirmed that Morales “is a repressor: if he has to kill you, he kills you”, but “he lost the elections and today he is denounced as a criminal against humanity”.
Sala is considered a referent of the indigenous struggle in Argentina and the first political prisoner of Macrismo. According to local media following the struggle for her freedom, she has been unjustly detained for seven years and 254 days.
International
Venezuelan Ministry of Health renews agreement with PAHO
September 29 |
The Venezuelan Minister of Health, Magaly Gutiérrez Viña, renewed the cooperation agreement with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Andean Health Organization – Hipólito Unanue Agreement in order to improve the health conditions of the population of the Andean sub-region.
The agreement took place this Wednesday at the 75th session of the Regional Committee of the World Health Organization for the Americas, held in Washington, D.C., and which runs from September 25 to 29.
During the meeting, the minister declared that Venezuela ratifies “the commitment to integration” and the “alliance with the signing of the renewal of the Cooperation Agreement of the Andean Region together with the Pan American Health Organization”.
This with a view to consolidating “the integration process” and “to continue advancing in training, international cooperation for development, so that the countries can exercise effective authority over their policies”.
In his speech, Mr. Gutiérrez Viña highlighted the damage caused by the blockade and the economic sanctions imposed by the United States on his country, and added that these measures prevent access to medical supplies and treatments for the Venezuelan people.
In general, the participants in the conclave agreed to work on a regional policy with a view to strengthening care for cancer patients, promoting early childhood development, healthy aging, as well as the treatment of non-communicable diseases and mental health, in addition to the implications of climate change on health.
The director of PAHO, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, said that it is time to “align agendas and promote synergies and convergences”.
International
EU and Latin America in cooperation against crime and drug trafficking
September 29 |
The interior ministers of the European Union and fourteen Latin American countries, including Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico and Argentina, pledged yesterday in Brussels to strengthen collaboration and cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking and transnational organized crime, in particular through a permanent channel for communication between the two regions to facilitate the exchange of data and establish a schedule of regular meetings.
“Individual responses against organized crime are ineffective. We can only be effective from international cooperation,” including beyond the European Union, defended the acting Minister of the Interior and EU Presidency-in-turn, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, at a press conference in Brussels.
The EU bloc took advantage of the monthly meeting of European interior ministers to receive the Latin American Committee for Internal Security (CLASI) in the European capital and “seal a bi-regional strategic partnership”.
In the joint statement issued after the meeting, the ministers expressed their commitment to “intensify cooperation to address the global drug situation affecting both regions”, for which they called for “increased exchange of information and intelligence”, “joint operations involving financial investigations and the promotion of development-oriented drug policy measures, including alternative development”.
Police cooperation priorities also include the fight against child sexual abuse, cybercrime, environmental and financial crime, illegal trade in cultural property, including money laundering, as well as corruption and the illicit profits it generates.
In the joint declaration, the ministers of internal security pledged to “join efforts to generate timely responses” in the fight against crime and drug trafficking.
Europe reiterated that “the rule of law and respect for human rights are of vital importance to our cooperation” as well as the application of criminal justice.
Final report submitted to Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate former deputies who diverted funds through front NGOs
Details of medical transfer of leader Milagro Sala revealed
Venezuelan Ministry of Health renews agreement with PAHO
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