"Democracy" in South America

Houston Chronicle:

How much is a vote worth?

In this humid Caribbean port, slum dwellers were offered the choice of $12 cash, 100 concrete blocks or three 88-pound bags of cement for each of their ballots.

In Peru, thousands traded their votes for food that originally had been purchased by the state.

In the rain forest of Brazil, some even swapped their votes for sets of false teeth.

Across Latin America, where 43 percent of people live below the poverty line, accounts abound of buying and selling ballots, coercing voters and other electoral shenanigans. Instead of supporting candidates because of their programs or promises of public works, many desperate voters opt for more immediate benefits, trading their ballots for wads of bills, bags of groceries, even wheelchairs.

For destitute Latin Americans, selling votes "is a rational way to get something out of an election because they know that politicians won't fulfill their promises," said one observer, Bruce Bagley, a professor of international studies at the University of Miami. By contrast, he said, more affluent voters "don't want a bottle of rum. They want the fire department to show up."

For unethical candidates, buying votes is like an insurance policy that helps guarantee victory. Once elected, they no longer feel obliged to deal with their constituents' requests because they already have paid them off.

"It breaks the link between the voter and his representative," said Bruno Speck of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International. "So the idea of having any kind of accountability while in office is undermined."

In Me Quejo, a sprawling shantytown on the outskirts of Barranquilla, one congressional candidate offered cash or construction supplies for votes in Colombia's legislative elections in March. Younger people often took the money to buy beer while their more community-minded elders requested concrete to pave their dirt streets, which turned into muddy canals every time it rained.

"I know it's not right, but you have to seize the moment," said Edith Seña, a seamstress who sold her vote for concrete to cover the earthen floor of her one-room hut. As turkeys and chickens pecked the ground next to Seña's outhouse, she said: "Next election, I will ask for a toilet."

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I have to say their earmarks are probably cheaper than ours. Pork or concrete, it is still buying votes. In the US they use your own money to buy your vote. Until we can stop the pork we will all pay a high price for our votes. I expect the problem to get worse with Democrats back in charge of congress.