Page 70 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

But, to come to an “understanding” with the chiefs, i.e., to buy massive
numbers of votes, there must be a buyer. And it so happened that the Electoral Tribunal
charged three retired Defense Forces officers with the task of ferrying the official
returns tally sheet back from San Blas. This choice was harshly attacked by the
opposition for its manifest implications of partiality and fraud.

In addition, two Indian brothers, Horacio, and Héctor Smith, denounced the
“monetary” frauds, i.e., the systematic and massive buying of votes in San Blas, in an
article published in La Prensa, page 8C, on June 7.

Final returns from San Blas were:

UNADE = 9,272
ADO = 903

And Barletta would later say that he won fair and square!

UNADE also bought numerous votes in the central provinces, particularly in
Herrera and Los Santos. Contrary to what happened in San Blas, though, no Electoral
Tribunal justice acknowledged this crime, not even implicitly. In addition to old-
fashioned vote-buying (the price fluctuated between $5.00 and $20.00), the “rental”
and “dog-earing” of voter registration cards were also frequent in these provinces.
Cards were rented so that the “lessee” could vote twice or more, depending on the
number of cards he would rent. They were also dogeared at the point indicated by the
Electoral Board so that known or potential opposition supporters could not vote.

As regards the rental of voter registration cards, inquisitive readers may
wonder why the bearer’s identity was not ascertained. The task of establishing voter
identity was left to the Electoral Tribunal officials assigned to each precinct. In
numerous cases these officials were UNADE supporters and openly countenanced this
fraud.

Point 17 of the bishop’s statement, “Abuses in connection with the actual
voting”, clearly denounces these electoral crimes: “In quite a few cases the prevailing
attitude is the old approach of ‘winning by any means’; through vote-buying, the dog-
earing of cards, the distribution of liquor…”. (See exhibit 18).
There are also many witnesses and newspaper report on this point. See, for
instance, La Prensa, May 10 and 13, pages 8C and 10C, respectively, and June 7, page
8C. Also see Ya, May 12, page 2.