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. This was highlighted in contributions to the report by Argentinian civil society organisation la Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC)."

The introduction of the Boleta Única de Papel (BUP) in October 2025 did not ensure universal, secret, and accessible voting for all eligible voters. Federal election authorities did not guarantee accessibility for people who are blind, have low vision, or are illiterate. Local civil society organizations raised alarms and electoral authorities made a last-minute, incomplete attempt to add accessibility measures. The shortcomings resulted in infringements on the rights to secrecy of the vote, privacy, political participation, and non-discrimination for affected voters. Universal accessibility from system design onward would benefit the entire electorate and support autonomous, private voting.

Read at Privacy International