The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has reinforced the “Apuntate, be part of the group” campaign so that more teens move their paperwork and vote in the 2018 national elections.
To date, there are 52,491 adolescents (34%) who have not yet applied for their identity card. This is apparent from the last update of the database, made by the Statistics Unit of the electoral body, as of June 30.
Of this group of young voters without an empadronar, 27,029 are men and 25,462 are women.
The majority of these boys are 17 years old (87.3%), while 10.8% have reached the age of majority and 1.9% are 19 years old.
Within the group of young voters who are not yet registered, 12,017 were born in San José, 7,319 in Alajuela, 4,871 in Cartago, 4,640 in Puntarenas, 4,323 in Limón, 3,522 in Heredia, and 3,298 in Guanacaste.
Similarly, 383 foreign born children who have not applied for their identity card and 12,118 cases where the mother at the time of the child’s birth did not indicate her place of residence.
The cantons with the largest number of unregistered youths are: Central San José with 2,168, followed by Central Alajuela with 2,077, Desamparados with 1,839, Pérez Zeledón with 1,666, San Carlos with 1,462, Central Carthage with 1,387 and Pococí with 1,332.
The new voters were born between February 8, 1998 and February 4, 2000. They are a total of 154,540 young people, who will have the possibility to issue the right to vote if they register in a timely manner no later than October 3 .
If 9,791 new naturalized voters are added to that amount, the number of 164,331 adolescents who could cast their first vote in February 2018 is obtained.
The campaign is aimed at all young people who are already over 18 or over the next few months (even on February 4, 2018) and who have not yet applied for their ID card, those who have until 3 October next to carry out the procedure and thus to be able to vote for the first time, in the national elections.
In less than 2 months after the TSE started the informative and motivational campaign, 13,581 young people have already attended the invitation and have approached to register in the electoral register.
The electoral body seeks to have the boys who have not registered, visit our headquarters, any of the 32 offices of the TSE located in the country or the Costa Rican consulates authorized abroad, to process their identity document, which will be delivered From the date of the birthday.
On February 4, 2018, the national elections will be held where the new President of the Republic and his two Vice-Presidents will be chosen, in addition to the 57 deputies that will be part of the Legislative Assembly.
As of June, the electoral roll in Costa Rica is made up of 3,299,834 voters, of which 1,655,314 are women and 1,644,520 are men.