Editing Hugo Chávez (section)

=== Elections under Chávez ===
[[File:Hugo-Chavéz Vota.jpg|thumb|Chávez voting in December 2007]]
The electoral processes surrounding Venezuela's democracy under Chávez were often observed controversially. According to [[Bloomberg News|''Bloomberg'']], he changed Venezuela from a democracy to "a largely authoritarian system".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/venezuela-price-revolution|title=Venezuela's Collapse|date=14 May 2018|publisher=[[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg]]|access-date=22 May 2018|language=en}}</ref>

However, there were limits to his authoritarianism, and he thought of the electoral system as a key way to make himself more effective as a leader.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Aleem |first=Zeeshan |date=19 September 2017 |title=How Venezuela went from a rich democracy to a dictatorship on the brink of collapse |url=https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/19/16189742/venezuela-maduro-dictator-chavez-collapse |access-date=22 December 2023 |website=Vox |language=en}}</ref>

As New York University historian [[Greg Grandin]] has pointed out, Chávez "submitted himself and his agenda to 14 national votes, winning 13 of them by large margins, in polling deemed by [[Jimmy Carter]] to be ‘best in the world.’"<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite news |last=Weisbrot |first=Mark |date=3 October 2012 |title=Why the US demonises Venezuela's democracy |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/03/why-us-dcemonises-venezuelas-democracy |access-date=22 December 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Francisco Toro, editor of [[Caracas Chronicles]], an opposition-friendly news and analysis site, said "Chávez was always careful to maintain electoral legitimacy".<ref name=":4" /> Toro says that Chávez had big advantages with friendly media and his tendency to use state money on his campaigns, but that he didn't "steal or cancel elections blatantly."<ref name=":4" /> Chávez even allowed his opposition to run a recall referendum against him in 2004 just two years after surviving a coup attempt. He won the referendum by a huge margin.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Norris |first=Michele |date=16 August 2004 |title=Chavez Wins Recall as Venezuelan President |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2004/08/16/3853809/chavez-wins-recall-as-venezuelan-president |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref>

Since 1998, [[elections in Venezuela]] have been automated using [[Touchscreen|touch-screen]] [[DRE voting machine]]s, which provide a [[Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail]] and administered by the [[National Electoral Council (Venezuela)|National Electoral Council]].<ref name=":7"/>

In Venezuela, voters touch a computer screen to cast their vote and then receive a paper receipt, which they verify and deposit in a ballot box.<ref name=":7" /> Most of the paper ballots are compared with the electronic tally. This system makes vote-rigging nearly impossible: to steal the vote would require hacking the computers and then stuffing the ballot boxes to match the rigged vote.<ref name=":7"/>

Beginning in 2012, Venezuela's elections used biometric authentication to activate the voting machine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Venezuela: World's first national e-Voting with paper trail election (2004–2017) |url=https://www.smartmatic.com/case-studies/venezuela-worlds-first-national-election-using-e-voting-with-paper-trail-2004-2017/ |access-date=21 December 2023 |website=smartmatic}}</ref>