Argentina's election authorities must guarantee the right to a universally accessible secret vote

"The October 2025 election saw the landmark introduction of a new voting system across the country, known as the "Boleta Única de Papel -BUP-" (Unique Paper Ballot). However, thanks to local CSOs such as Asociación Tiflonexos and others, the alarm was raised in the run up to the election that the system was not made accessible to blind and partially sighted people, leading to a last-minute but ultimately incomplete attempt from electoral authorities to implement accessibility provisions."

"Ensuring universally accessible design from the inception of institutional and electoral systems such as Argentina's new BUP system must be understood as being of essential benefit to the whole of society, not only as something targeted towards catering to people with disabilities. An electoral system which is meaningfully accessible should facilitate the autonomous, private, secure and secret vote for everybody in the electorate, including people who are elderly, illiterate, living with disabilities or who face linguistic or technological challenges."

Federal election authorities failed to ensure universal accessibility to a secret vote in Argentina's October 2025 legislative elections. The Boleta Única de Papel (BUP) voting system was introduced nationwide but did not provide meaningful accessibility for blind and partially sighted voters and illiterate people. Local civil society organizations such as Asociación Tiflonexos raised alarms and electoral authorities made a last-minute, incomplete attempt to implement accessibility provisions. Universal design from the inception of electoral systems is essential to enable autonomous, private, secure, and secret voting for elderly, illiterate, disabled, or linguistically and technologically challenged voters. As a result, secrecy, privacy, political participation, and non-discrimination were undermined for some segments of the electorate.

Read at Privacy International