By Martin Raschinsky, from Reverse
On June 11, 2023, there were elections for governor in the province of Tucumán in which Osvaldo Jaldo (Frente de Todos) was the winner. Since that night, more than 10,000 users have shared on social networks the image of a tally sheet that would prove fraud, since it shows that at a table the winning coalition obtained more votes than voters. However, an official observer explained to AFP – a medium that he coordinates Reverse With checked– That the number on the list was replicated by mistake and that the figure was corrected, which can be verified in the official documents of the Provincial Electoral Board of Tucumán.
“Fraud in Tucumán! The average per table is 350 voters… There are 830 votes from the Frente de Chorros?? RT to infinity to go viral”, reads the tweet of a user who shares the image, which also circulates on Facebook (1, 2), Instagram (1, 2) and TikTok.
The photo shows a tally sheet with the count of the votes received by each party that participated in the government elections. In the column of votes corresponding to the pro-government Front of All for Tucumán, it reads “830” and then “eight hundred and thirty” in the next column. However, in the box for total votes obtained there is “281” and “two hundred and eighty-one” correspondingly.
On June 11, 2023, the Argentine province held gubernatorial elections in which Osvaldo Jaldo prevailed with 56.31% of the votes after 89% of the polling stations. In second place was Roberto Sánchez from Juntos por el Cambio, the main opposition alliance.
However, the data that appears in the viralized document does not correspond to that provided by the Provincial Electoral Board website.
In the line that corresponds to the Frente de Todos, it can be seen that the number 830 in the column of votes obtained coincides with the number awarded to the group.
Image source
The image shows the names of the prosecutors who participated in that table, 3369, at the San Patricio Secondary School in the Tucuman town of Yerba Buena.
AFP Factual contacted Pedro Torres Possessionone of the prosecutors, who explained on June 12: “I sent that photo to the WhatsApp group of the prosecutors, 2 minutes later I saw the error and made an observation to the table president”. Torres Posse clarified that the table president made the mistake of putting the party list number, 830, instead of the number of votes, which was 118.
“It was an instant, after commenting to the president we corrected the number of votes immediately and sent the image back to the group of prosecutors”, detailed Torres Posse, who sent the image of the corrected record to AFP. In it you can read the corrected figure: it no longer says 830, but 118. It also went up the correction to his Twitter account on June 11.
Hello Susana, the error was corrected before it was handed over to the gendarmes. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/n3RASep0he
— pedro torres posse (@pedro1tp) June 12, 2023
“It was an instant, after commenting to the president we corrected the number of votes immediately and sent the image back to the group of prosecutors”, detailed Torres Posse, who sent the image of the corrected record to AFP. In it you can read the corrected figure: it no longer says 830, but 118. It also went up the correction to his Twitter account on June 11.
The sum of the corrected figure with the rest of the votes does coincide with the total number of votes cast, which is 281.
A query to the website of the Provincial Electoral Board of Tucumán, the official body designated to organize, arbitrate, oversee and control the processes of election of authorities in the province, shows that in the table in question, the 3369, for the Frente de All of Tucumán loaded a total of 118 votes, and not 830.
Likewise, at the bottom of the site you can access the image of the official telegram delivered to the electoral authorities of the province. Said document contains the same number of votes for the Frente de Todos: 118.
This note is part of Reverse, the collaborative journalistic project coordinated by checked y AFP that unites media and technology companies to intensify the fight against disinformation during the electoral campaign.
The contact ways to join are:
by mail to info@chequeado.com
by WhatsApp
and /ReversoAr on all networks.
Author: Martín Raschinsky
Edition 1: Anella Reta
Edition 2: Ana Prieto
Edition 3: Matías Di Santi
