0.628%

With sadness I read on the bulletin board at the entrance to the university, this afternoon, the Record of the Election of the Rector, drawn up by the Grand Electoral Jury. This record presented an extract of the official document of final official sums and weightings of the elections of November 12. In this document there appears a disturbing paradox (more disturbing even than the New Twin Paradox). In it, the Grand Electoral Jury states for the record that on November 11 (one day before the elections) the withdrawal of Mr. Ernesto Regales Argudo as a candidate for the rectorship was received at headquarters. And immediately afterward, the Grand Jury reports (among the percentages of the other candidates) that Mr. Ernesto Regales Argudo obtained 0.628% of the votes.

A mysterious country this is! For in it not only do the dead vote, but those who are not candidates also receive votes… Strange things thou shalt see, Sancho!

It is true that the ballots were already printed with Mr. Regales’s name, and it is also true that some absent-minded voters voted for Mr. Regales, perhaps without knowing that he was no longer a candidate. That is normal. What is terrible is that the Grand Jury—being so Grand—did not manage to treat these votes as void. Because a vote for someone who is not a candidate is void. Mr. Regales should not appear in the percentages of the election, and the votes cast for him should have been treated as what they are: void votes. Thus, that 0.628% belongs neither to Ernesto Regales nor to anyone else, but must be added to the percentage of void votes.

I consider it a mockery of Mr. Regales as a political figure to spread throughout the country a document that assigns him that percentage of the votes, all the more so since it is such a laughable percentage.