Electoral frauds

Due to the emigration increase in recent years (as we have covered extensively here, with the right figures, quite different from the optimistic numbers released by official media), the votes of those Italian citizens living abroad may be decisive for the outcome of political elections and referendums.

Just consider that at present there are more than 4 millions of Italians living abroad: those who are more than 18 years old, can vote. Let's suppose that they are roughly 3 million.

Typically elections are won by a party that gets a few hundred thousand votes more than the opponent.

So, the more emigration rate from a country, the more important the votes of those living abroad become for the outcome of elections of referendum. We can say that they hold the balance of power to steer the elections towards the government

If you live in Italy, and you go to the local polling station, before effectively voting inside the polling booth, you have to:

1. show your ID
2. put your sign to the local election ledger

So, one ID, one signature, one vote.

I have recently moved to live to the Netherlands, and I got all the papers to vote by mail for the next Italian referendum on 4 December 2016.
You see, I put a vote on the voting paper, but:

1. no ID required
2. no signature required

Theoretically, I could have grasped 30 voting papers from some friends of mine and put my vote on them, and send them all from the postal office of my town.

There is something that is even worse: the papers are printed not by the Consolate, but by an external real estate company. Who controls how many of these voting papers are sent and to whom, in particular the cross-check between the address of the person reached by the mail and the vote? I can tell you more: nobody can tell that the external envelope, addressed to the local Consolate, was coming from me or from somebody else.

Welcome to the Italian Banana Republic: everybody talks about the importance of Democracy but nobody is aware of the tricks that may compromise the only and most import tool of Democracy:

one adult = one vote

I do not think there is any conspiracy theory: dilettantism, superficiality and ignorance in the public affairs, and, whenever there is a combination of these three ingredients, somebody will take advantage.