Abstract

PENCHASZADEH, Ana Paula  and  NICOLAO, Julieta. Immigrant voting in the province of Buenos Aires: Subnational voter registration policy under the spotlight. Íconos [online]. 2024, n.78, pp.73-93. ISSN 1390-8065.  https://doi.org/10.17141/iconos.78.2024.5956.

The purpose of this article is to make visible and analyze the political, institutional, and bureaucratic-administrative framework involved in the consolidation of the electoral strength of the immigrant population residing in the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina). In this province, since 1999, the automatic registration of foreigners who meet legal requirements has been recognized. The analysis focuses on the registration policy and on electoral authorization to show that this is a longterm process, in which there are significant discontinuities between the stages of sanction, regulation, and application. It is also based on a qualitative methodological approach centered on the consultation and comprehensive analysis of a diverse set of primary and secondary statistical and documentary sources, as well as key informant interviews. It is concluded that the political call for automatic voter registration, embodied in the letter of the law and resulting from a genuine struggle for the expansion of political rights, has required extremely complex institutional designs on which significant progress has been made in recent years, but which, at present, continue to rely largely on the sum of wills and ad hoc political synergies.

Keywords : Argentina; electoral enrolment; political rights; immigration; Buenos Aires province; immigrant vote..

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