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Chavez Miami Foes Hire Planes to Vote in Venezuela Race
Chavez Miami Foes Hire Planes to Vote in Venezuela Race
Alicia Rodriguez so dislikes President Hugo Chavez, and blames him for making her native Venezuela unsafe, that the 80-year-old retiree is flying 1,300 miles from her adopted home in Miami to cast a vote against him.
She’s not the only one. In what’s shaping up to be Chavez’s toughest election battle yet, Venezuelans who’ve fled to Florida since he took power in 1999 are mobilizing on the Internet to oust him from office. At least two groups have pledged to transport thousands of voters by chartered planes and buses to a polling center run by Venezuela’s consulate in New Orleans so they can cast ballots on election day, Oct. 7.
...
While the 100,495 Venezuelans registered to vote abroad account for just 0.5 percent of the electorate, this election may be close enough for expatriates to alter the outcome, according to Gustavo Rojas, the director of political and economic research company Polinomics.
Pollsters are split on who leads in the race, though none shows Chavez dominating like he did in 2006, when he won with 63 percent. Capriles had 48.1 percent support against 46.2 percent for Chavez in a survey taken at the end of August by Caracas- based polling company Consultores 21. In another poll taken between July 16 and Aug. 9 by Caracas-based Datanalisis, Chavez had 46.8 percent compared with 34.2 percent support for the former Governor of Miranda state.
Alicia Rodriguez so dislikes President Hugo Chavez, and blames him for making her native Venezuela unsafe, that the 80-year-old retiree is flying 1,300 miles from her adopted home in Miami to cast a vote against him.
She’s not the only one. In what’s shaping up to be Chavez’s toughest election battle yet, Venezuelans who’ve fled to Florida since he took power in 1999 are mobilizing on the Internet to oust him from office. At least two groups have pledged to transport thousands of voters by chartered planes and buses to a polling center run by Venezuela’s consulate in New Orleans so they can cast ballots on election day, Oct. 7.
...
While the 100,495 Venezuelans registered to vote abroad account for just 0.5 percent of the electorate, this election may be close enough for expatriates to alter the outcome, according to Gustavo Rojas, the director of political and economic research company Polinomics.
Pollsters are split on who leads in the race, though none shows Chavez dominating like he did in 2006, when he won with 63 percent. Capriles had 48.1 percent support against 46.2 percent for Chavez in a survey taken at the end of August by Caracas- based polling company Consultores 21. In another poll taken between July 16 and Aug. 9 by Caracas-based Datanalisis, Chavez had 46.8 percent compared with 34.2 percent support for the former Governor of Miranda state.
Venezuela intentionally closed the consulate in Miami to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters. It's weird how FL seems to be the nexus of voter disenfranchisement.
