In the 2017 presidential elections, the electoral authority canceled the so-called emotional voice. At the first training sessions for members of electoral committees (MJRV) – at the beginning of December 2016 – it was explained that those who express themselves with happy faces, looks, stripes, messages, hearts, kisses and other signs representing acceptance if they are in the squares that correspond to the candidacy, are registered within the framework of the valid right to vote.

On December 13, 2016, the National Electoral Council (CNE) attributed the indication to confusion and clarified that no emoticon reflects the voter’s intent, so ballots marked with cartoons will be void votes.

In the extraordinary elections on August 20, 2023, they will be accepted, in accordance with the instructions of the MJRV from last July 5.

On July 7, in the first cycle of training in the electoral delegation of Guayas, instructors María Soledad Castro and Fausto Peñafiel explained and drew the correct forms of voice expression such as heart, circle, line, tick, asterisk, whenever it is within the frame. If a voter draws obscene pictures, that vote is not counted. In the Organic Election Law, article 125, number 3, notes that “votes cast on ballots shall be considered valid (…) and which in any way express the will of the voters in an intelligible way.”

Regardless of the influence of the language used on cell phones, the choice of who will run the country is a matter that must be taken seriously and left no room for doubt. Although the training is mandatory, the reality is that not everyone goes and MJRV is taken from the list of voters to replace the one who is missing, and by not informing about valid votes there is a risk that a vote will be invalidated due to ignorance of its acceptance. It is better then to use the traditional vertical line within the frame that the ballot offers. (OR)