THIS EXACT SYSTEM IS WHY THE OPPOSITION KNOWS MADURO WAS NOT THE WINNER.

since im aware that most people dont know why so many of us who oppose maduro are SURE that he lost, and thus his claim to power is illegitimate dont know how voting works in venezuela, as someone who is 27 years old, and thus have participated in multiple votings i shall make it my duty to give a brief explanation:

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Venezuelas voting systems has been called by other governments "The most secure voting system in the world". This is because of the fact that it's a process that immediately generates two different sets of paper trail that allows the verification of the digital results of the voting via the physical receipts.

The way that the process works is as it follows:

(step 0. You register to vote in your municipality. According to your adress, you get assigned into one of hundreds of tables by state. You Can Only Vote In That Location. The registry includes the scanning of your thumbprint.)

You step up to a machine in the voting booth. This machine will NOT allow you to vote until you unlock it using your thumbprint, and it will show you your information (Name and ID)

You'll be presented with the ballot and then you must tap on the screen the candidate and party you want to vote for from the list.

The picture and name of the candidate will appear in the center of the screen and you must select it AGAIN for the vote to be counted.

The machine then confirms your vote and it prints a paper ballot TO YOU. You take it from the machine's printing module.

You then put the ballot into the SEALED/LOCKED ballot box, along with the ballots of every other person who voted in your same table.

You sign your name in the attendance list, put your thumbprint into that list AND your pinky finger gets dipped in blue/purple ink, so it's easily identifiable that you voted.

That's the process as of the citizens. Now When voting is done, A paper receipt (Acta Electoral) is printed from each machine. This Acta is then confirmed by ALL electoral witnesses at a table, it's signed and it's supposed to eventually be given to the CNE (Centro Nacional Electoral or "National Electoral Center") for eventual publication in their official website, so everyone could confirm that what they voted for is what's registered.

It's only AFTER the Actas Electorales were printed that the digital results registered by the voting machines are THEN sent to the CNE.

it's important to remark this: back in 2013, one of MADURO'S CAMPAIGN'S MAIN ARGUMENTS on why that one voting wasnt a fraud was, AND I QUOTE:

"Primero la máquina imprime esta acta, después que imprime esta acta, la máquina transmite. Primero imprime, es muy importante que los venezolanos sepamos y entendamos para evitar la mentira y el engaño, imprime y después transmite"

"First the machine prints this receipt, after it prints it, the machine transmits it. First it prints, it's very important for venezuelans to know and understand this to avoid lies and deceit, it prints and after that it transmits [the results]."

It's also imperative for me to remark: each Acta Electoral has a UNIQUE digital code. So it cant be forged easily. Here's a video after a different voting, and one of the government/PSUV officials bragging about how the Actas de Votación are irrevocable evidence.

Now with all of this out of the way, let's go back to the election day, July 28th.

Now mind you, i am currently not in Venezuela, and instead i had to leave the country not for what you might think, but instead for reasons partaining to my personal safety. But that's neither here nor there. Im just mentioning it so that you understand the lence of my POV.

Now even from before the elections, there was a lot of voting interferance going on: people finding out they had been unregitered to vote, people who had moved startes finding out their voting centers had been reverse to their old addresses. Hell, even most people in the outside of the country were scrambling cause many of OUR voting centers were changed to being BACK in Venezuela, instead of our local Embassy.

Now come the day of the voting, people are lining up from before the sun is up. And voting is supposed to run from 6am to 6pm. Ensuring that as many Venezuelans could vote.

However, in many locations, there were reports of colectivos (armed pro-government civilian militia) showing up around voting centers, discouraging people from voting, and even threatening individuals.

Some tables were reportedly closed earlier, leaving people who had been in line for hours unable to vote.

And remember how I mentioned electoral witnesses earlier? well, usually, witnesses are supposed to be from both parties to reassure that the results that they are shown given by any party ARE the ones they saw. Well... in some locations they were reporting how witnesses from the opposition party were NOT being allowed into the voting tables AFTER voting was closed.

NOW.

The time after voting is closed passes. And then the Results are announced on July 29th 00:09/12:09am

They declare that with around 80% of the votes counted, Maduro had won. The percentages that they announced were as follows: Maduro 51.4%, Edmundo Gonzalez 44.2%, and three different third party candidates with around 4% EACH. now. eagle eyed readers will notice.... that's more than 100%

Now it could be say that because of there being some more % left to be counted then it could be a margin of error EXCEPT if we go by that logic, 80% of votes having been counted for an over 10M confirmed voters turnabout means there's around 2 million votes left to be counted and the difference between maduro and gonzales... being less than 1 million votes, so WHY did they announce themselves winners preemptively then but that's just my own personal read.

now. remember that multi-step system i described? the one praised worldwide as one of the most secure voting systems in the world?

THIS EXACT SYSTEM IS WHY THE OPPOSITION KNOWS MADURO WAS NOT THE WINNER.

see, knowing that some foul play might happen during such crucial elections, most of the opposition witnesses and voting table volunteers stayed in the voting table area for hours if necessary, and many of the claim they had to way for hours for their LEGITIMATE RIGHT to see the voting ballot receipts. And after they got them? They hid them in books, in their pockets, in their underwear. Wherever they had to put them to get the Actas outside of the building and into the hands of the opposition party.

that's why on MONDAY JULY 29th the web https://resultadosconvzla.com/ was launched by the opposition. Hundreds if not thousands of people got their Actas, scanned them and sent them on the way of the opposition party, so as to safekeep the FACTUAL RESULTS registered by the venezuelan voting system.

out of 30,026 voting tables, they got the results of 25,073

and in those results the victory of the opposition is STAGGERING. as in 70% of the votes to the opposition, 23% to maduro levels of difference.

and in some cases, witnesses from the pro-maduro side of the tables have shown off the actas they have in which they won.... just for them to actually COINCIDE with the ones shown in the web that the opposition made, which only makes them more valid.

----

so what now?

well, maduro still claims he won, and he has asked the Tribunal of Supreme Justice (which he controls and has people he handpicked running it) to declare that the results given by the CNE (which, you guessed it, he controls and has people he handpicked running it) are the legitimate ones. so maduro asked maduro to confirm the results maduro declared. sounds logical, no?

that isnt even to mention the fact that the CNE has refused to upload and publish the Actas de Votación in the time that our consitution indicates they have to (72 Hours), because they claim that they are under "a massive hacking attack", which on one side makes you say: so... if you cant access the actas and therefore the results, then why are you declaring anyone a winner?... and on the other hand Kaspersky Lab, arguably the biggest russian cyber security company, didnt show any attacks happening in venezuela during those dates.

Now during this entire situation, the Carter Center was present in venezuela for the voting. The Carter Center has been present in previous elections in the country and has backed them as legitimate, and even the government of venezuela praised them and celebrated their arrival to the country.

They indicated that they would do a report soon and left the country the day after the elections happened. And in August 5th they said that they

"No encontraron evidencias de 'hackeo' al sistema electoral, desmintiendo así las versiones oficialistas de manipulación de actas por parte de la oposición" ... el Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) no presentó pruebas del supuesto hackeo, y afirmó que un saboteo era “prácticamente imposible”

"They didnt find any evidence of 'hacking' in the voting system, disproving the cflaims from the government that there was manipulation in the results receipts shown by the opposition"... the CNE did not present any proof of the supposed hacking, and sabotage was "basically imposible"

(X)

now i know yall first world lefties get a rash whenever former or current US presidents are mentioned BUT the Carter Center HAS been impartial on venezuelan results in the past, backing maduro elections before. But their report on this year's elections is FAR from positive. And the UN has also declared that their own correspondents couldnt stand behind the results being announced by the venezuelan government.

Anyways.

Why am i writing all this? Well... maybe because im tired of people yapping without knowing what's actually happening. Why the venezuelan opposition is AFFIRMING that they won, and Maduro DID NOT. Because he didn't.

And this time THE PEOPLE made sure that the real results saw the light. And no one could tell us we are only screaming nonsense.

We. Won.

And now they are trying to shut our people up with violence. Refusing to accept their loss. They are killing people. Incarcerating thousands. Just for ASKING that our choice is respected.

Please dont side with an oppressor.

Please dont abandon the people of Venezuela.