A slew of technical problems with the electronic voting machines Buenos Aires city is using to choose local authorities is causing delays in the voting process in the city. Due to these issues, Federal judge María Servini said the 6 p.m. voting deadline could be extended, given that BA city residents have to vote using two systems, given that the vote for national authorities is done with paper ballots. The National Electoral Chamber said that that decision will be made later in the day, depending on the situation. 

Interviewed by media outlets, BA city residents reported waiting between one and two hours in some voting centers.

Earlier Sunday, Servini sent a letter to the National Electoral Chamber warning of problems with the electronic voting machines. In her statement, Servini said people of her team had verified that some machines didn’t work, while other voting centers had them but were unable to get them running or test them. 

“The degree of improvisation displayed by the company in charge [of providing] the voting machines, as well as that of the Electoral Management Institute of Buenos Aires city is worrisome, showing a  lack of expertise in the organization and running of an electoral process that has never been seen before,” wrote Servini.   

Interviewed by C5N TV station, Servini said that at mid-morning Sunday, there were still problems in at least 200 voting machines, and that in some places there were issues with delays because of the problems with the electronic vote. “People want to vote but can’t,” she said. 

Buenos Aires city authorities said in turn that the election process had started “normally” on Sunday morning, and was moving along without any problems in the 1.097 voting centers in the city. They acknowledged registering problems in 87 machines, which had already been fixed. At the time of writing, they said there are no ongoing problems in the voting process. 

According to Servini, some voting centers were still waiting at 2 a.m. on Sunday for technical personnel to arrive and leave the machines running. The company said their personnel would be there by 6 a.m. to fix any issues, something the judge called “inadmissible,” since they would be doing so without the presence of judiciary representatives, namely members of her team.  

Among the issues reported by her team, Servini pointed to problems like voting machines arriving late at voting centers, machines placed where they shouldn’t be, lack of installation kits, and machine cables improperly set up that could lead to potential safety hazards for voters who step on them or trip. Servini estimated that said problems could affect up to 30% of all voting machines.

In an interview with Radio con Vos radio station, Servini said later in the day that she would file a criminal complaint because the authorities had not followed the orders of a BA city judge, who had requested the presence of technical staff from the company running the voting machines in voting centers reporting difficulties. 

Servini also said that if a person can’t use the electronic voting machine, her directive is that they vote for national authorities using the paper ballot. “If [people] can’t vote in the city, that’s not my problem. I did the best I could,” she said. 

On Sunday afternoon, the National Electoral Chamber published its response to Servini, stating that using technology in voting should meet security and auditing requirements outlined in 2016. 

“Those conditions have not been met by the City’s electoral authorities in implementing said system,” read the letter, saying that this led to voter participation being hindered, alongside its knock-on effects beyond the electronic systems such as delays.

Updated on Sunday August 13 at 17:03