With two weeks left before voter registration closes for the Nov. 5 general elections, less than half the number of new voters has been registered compared to the previous election cycle, even though this time, the Puerto Rico State Elections Commission (CEE) has a digital platform funded with more than $3.7 million in public money, which is supposed to facilitate the process.

The Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) found that the new platform, which began operating in October 2023, the Electronic Voter Registry (eRE), has hindered the process and discouraged some first-time voters. The platform is not practical, rejects required documents, limits the number of transactions per citizen, and in many cases does not effectively complete the registration, forcing applicants to duplicate the process in person or lose their chance to vote if they leave the island, as is the case for university students studying abroad.

For the 2020 elections, 121,358 new voters registered. However, as of Sept. 3, 2024, 18 days before the voter registration deadline, the CEE reported that 58,943 new voters had registered for the upcoming elections. Of these, only 18.6% (11,054) used the eRE platform. As of press time, the number of new voters had increased to 62,426, following efforts by artists, influencers, and young people on social media to encourage voter registration. The number of recent registrations completed through eRE was not specified.

According to Luis Cámara Fuertes, professor of political science at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, “Puerto Rico has been on a long downward trend in voter participation since the late 1980s. That decline accelerated in 2000, and the drop has been catastrophic since 2016. In 2020, only 49% of those eligible to vote did so. Less than half of the voters.”

Cámara Fuertes described the CEE’s registration system as “archaic.” “The voter registry closes in September, while in the U.S., it’s 30 days before the election. In many states, it closes the day before the election. Also, in the U.S., you can register at any government office,” he said.

Francisco Rodríguez, 19, was interested in getting his voter ID. He tried using eRE but gave up after several unsuccessful attempts. “I tried to submit everything, but it was impossible,” said the young man. He explained that when he tried to upload the documents, the platform would return him to the homepage, or he couldn’t click any button on the website.

“Doing it in person [at the local registration board JIP] is complicated because I study and work. When I’m not at university, I’m at work,” he said. “I’ve also heard that the wait times for doing everything in person are really long. That’s why I stopped trying,” he added.

Likewise, Ariana Sosa, a college student in the U.S., and her sister tried registering online to vote for the first time. Ariana could not complete the process online, while her sister succeeded on her second attempt.

“We wanted to register online because we study outside Puerto Rico, and we were told it was easier that way. It took us about two and a half hours to try and answer all the questions online. The website kept crashing,” said the 20-year-old.

“When we got to the documents section, we had to upload the birth certificate, passport, driver’s license, and a photo. We had to refresh the page and try submitting each document one by one, which took a lot of time. Finally, we completed the whole process,” she said.

However, the next day, the CEE emailed her that her application had been rejected because she needed to submit a “valid birth certificate,” even though the document met all the requirements and proved her U.S. citizenship.

“When I checked my account, at the top, it said I needed to contact the Commission [CEE] directly. I was shocked because we had already submitted everything: the certificate and the passport, which clearly showed I was a U.S. citizen,” she recalled.

A week later, still without completing the process, Ariana went in person to resolve the issue. “They explained that since last Sunday, they had no power. They assisted me in the lobby. I brought all the documents just in case, and I was able to register, but I had to go there in person.” The procedure took about an hour.

According to the email notification, her sister’s application was rejected for the same reason — the birth certificate. When Ariana asked CEE staff why the applications were rejected, “they didn’t know and said they would investigate. They asked if I had a voter ID number, and I said I didn’t know. When I checked the confirmation email from when I was rejected, I saw they had given me a voter ID number. But when they checked the system, it didn’t exist.”

Eduardo Nieves Cartagena, director of the CEE Information Systems and Electronic Processing Office (OSIPE), said that when a new registration is recorded, “the number is temporary. That number is reserved for the person, and if the application is rejected, the number is no longer used.”

The two sisters were in limbo for another week, not knowing the details and waiting to complete the registration process for her sister. “When we finally got an explanation about the birth certificate issue, they told us that we have to present a birth certificate from a date after 2010. However, when we checked the PDF we submitted, we found the document was from 2013. We don’t know why it was rejected. Now, my sister is back in the U.S., and if she has to go to the CEE in person, she won’t have time because her classes have already started, and the deadline is Sept. 21,” Ariana explained. The CPI reviewed the documents and confirmed the certificate was from July 2013.

She finally got her voter ID card. The day after she applied online for absentee voting to return to her university in the U.S. Once again, the digital platform failed.

“I logged into my account to request absentee voting, and there are two options: it asks if you’re registered or not. I selected that I was registered and entered all my information: my first name, last name, my mom’s name, my social security number, my driver’s license number, etc. But when I tried to submit, I was not able to do it.” According to Ariana, the webpage froze, and pressing the continue button multiple times forced her to log in repeatedly.

“I stayed in that loop for a long time. I stopped trying to log in because it simply wouldn’t let me. I was informed [by CEE staff] that if, for example, your mom has a second name and it’s written incorrectly, the system might not recognize it. But that wasn’t my fault; it was theirs,” she said.

Ariana eventually completed her absentee voting request. Her sister, who had already started her classes in the U.S., managed to register online days later with assistance from Puerto Rico but is still waiting for her absentee ballot approval.

eRE Platform Limits Number of Transactions

The CEE’s Secretary’s Office is the unit that knows how many transactions have been rejected in the Electronic Voter Registry, explained OSIPE director Eduardo Nieves Cartagena. He said the eRE platform allows a maximum of three-monthly transactions per voter, and a quality control unit establishes the protocol for rejecting any application.

In August, the quality control unit reviewed 6,796 transactions and rejected 1,803. According to the Electoral Transaction Quality Control Protocol, applications are rejected when identity proof is illegible, if the data provided does not match these documents, or if the proof of identity and citizenship don’t align with the place of birth, among other reasons.

“Your registration request in the Voter Registry has been rejected by the State Elections Commission for the following reasons: R,” reads part of the notification sent by the CEE to another voter trying to register, with only a letter instead of the specific reason for rejection. “You can access your eRE account to submit a new registration request or contact us at XXX-XXX-XXXX for guidance and assistance with the registration process,” the notification continued, without providing the phone number. This case is not isolated; the CPI confirmed with other young people who tried registering.

Nieves Cartagena explained that “some operators may have forgotten to paste the information after selecting it [from the Electoral Transaction Quality Control Protocol]. That’s why, in some cases, only a letter appears instead of the reason for rejection.”

Others have complained that the system still asks for more information after submitting personal documents, including Global Entry cards and utility bills. “I received an email after completing the process, but I don’t have a status update,” wrote one user online, seeking help with the process. Global Entry refers to the identification issued to travelers under a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program.

Nieves Cartagena also acknowledged that “the most common issue brought to our attention has been uploading the voter’s face photo. From the start of the project, we have been fine-tuning the photo validation rigor, so now the process is as lenient as possible, merely checking for eye positioning.” He recommended that the potential voter have their photo taken by someone else, with a light background, and framed from the torso up.

According to the Electoral Transaction Quality Control Protocol, photos are rejected if they don’t match the proof of identity or are not taken against a clear and solid background.

“The Safest Bet Is to Go (in person) to a JIP Rather Than Keep Trying With eRE”

Given the challenges posed by the Electronic Voter Registry, coupled with the reduction in local Permanent Registration Boards (JIPs) from 78 in 2020 to 16 permanent and 26 temporary boards today, nonprofit organizations like La Tejedora and Somos Más have stepped in to encourage voter registration and reactivation, particularly among younger voters.

La Tejedora is an organization that works to “connect young leaders working toward self-determination, decolonization, and climate justice in Puerto Rico.” Since the summer, they have been running a campaign called #prendetuvoto (turn on your vote) to motivate voter registration. Somos Más, on the other hand, aims to promote “citizen participation in political matters beyond the right to vote and protest by seeking concrete solutions to social and political problems through legislation.” Since the 2020 elections, they have been working to encourage election participation to “strengthen democracy.”

Kari Claudio Betancourt, who heads La Tejedora, said that based on her experience over the past few months, “the eRE system is difficult and complicated to use. You need to have documents in a specific format. If you don’t have all the information, it makes you start over. The safest bet is to go to a JIP [Permanent Registration Board] rather than keep trying with eRE.”

However, even those who go to complete their registration in person are not exempt from problems. Despite the launch of eRE, which was supposed to speed up the process, long lines remain, infrastructure issues persist, some locations have only one computer available, and internet and power outages occur frequently.

Claudio Betancourt believes the CEE should do more to reach young people in their free time, such as during weekends, and resume school visits.

As for the Electronic Voter Registry, Somos Más Executive Director Johnny Rullán Schmidt also reported difficulties uploading utility bills, which are required to prove residency. “eRE doesn’t specify which pages of the bill need to be uploaded; it should be the first and third. Then, they reject the registration [of the potential voter]. Young people aged 18 to 21 who still live with their parents, if the bills aren’t in their name, have the option to indicate that the bill isn’t in their name on the platform, but that’s not explained, and they end up having to go in person,” he explained.

Lillian Aponte, the Electoral Commissioner for the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC), is concerned that when registration closes on Sept. 21, “thousands of transactions will still be pending approval. These voters have the right to participate in the elections, and the issue must be resolved because they demonstrated their intention to participate.”

Nieves Cartagena assured the Commission that it will have one more week “to internally validate all types of transactions, approve them, and assign a precinct and unit to the voter.”

Aponte criticized that only 12 JIPs are open on Saturdays until 1 p.m. “We opposed the closure of the JIPs because there was no plan to address how the closures would impact voters, and eRE wasn’t working. It was supposed to launch in 2022, and it didn’t roll out until December 2023. We couldn’t even test the platform,” she said.

The Electoral Commissioner of Proyecto Dignidad, Juan M. Frontera believes “the problem has been that the Commission is setting up several systems at the same time without testing them. eRE was rolled out this year, and there’s also eJavaa for early voting. Then there’s the e-poll book. The primaries (in June) served as the test for all the technological systems simultaneously.”

Over $7 Million Invested in Advertising

Influmedia LLC is a company registered in 2018 that “uses influencers to promote brands or businesses,” according to the corporation’s registry at the Department of State’s website. From December 2023 to July 2024, the CEE has given the agency $7,549,620 in contracts. Influmedia is represented by its resident agent and president, Rubén J. Rodríguez Cid.

The CEE gave Influmedia a contract in December 2023 to develop information and orientation campaigns “related to education about the new technological projects to be used in the electoral processes.” After two amendments, which included advertising for the “presidential primaries” and “phone voting,” the contract reached a total of $2,274,620, of which $1,119,188 was reserved to promote the eRE system.

One of the advertisements promoting the use of eRE describes it as “power” in the hands of the voter and as a “simple, safe, and reliable” system.

The CEE awarded another contract to the company in July, and a month later, it was amended for a total of $5,275,000 in two phases: one for “campaigns on the benefits of the eRE system and all early voting modalities” and another for “registration, reactivation, transfers, eJavaa, call to action to vote, how to vote, absentee voting, and electronic vote-counting machines.”

Another ad Influmedia produced explains the requirements for registering for the first time via eRE, listing several options for proving identity. However, the information provided is incomplete, as it does not specify that the system requires valid identification and a profile photo with specific requirements.

During this summer’s budget hearings, CEE Deputy President Jessica Padilla Rivera requested a $5,500,000 allocation for the ads and campaigns coordinated by Influmedia. Rullán Schmidt pointed out the contrast, noting that while his organization, Somos Más, has no budget for campaigns like the CEE, they appear to have been more effective in their outreach efforts.

“We are present in the media, making videos aimed at young people. The Commission’s content has low engagement [audience reactions], and there is no solid content strategy to appeal to young people. We believe they’ve fallen short,” said Rullán Schmidt.

A quick search of Somos Más’s Instagram account shows over 122,000 views of a video explaining how to register new voters through eRE, posted on Aug. 27. Another video posted a week ago, showing a group of young people agreeing to go to a registration board office, garnered nearly 16,000 views. On Sept. 5, the organization urged people in a video to “inspire others to register,” which received nearly 45,000 views. In contrast, the CEE’s account on this social network contains more photo posts than videos. Posts related to registration or the transactions available through eRE garnered between 1,800 and 3,500 views.

The TikTok phenomenon is also prominent, particularly among voters aged 18 to 25. A quick search of the phrase “Sácala, dale úsala” (Get it, use it), referring to the voter ID card, reveals dozens of videos, some with more than 265,000 views. Despite this media phenomenon, the CEE does not have a TikTok account to reach this demographic on social media.

Influmedia has had 14 contracts since 2020 with the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, the Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development, the Tourism Company, and the CEE.

The CPI asked the CEE for the proposal that Influmedia submitted for these contracts, the invoices they have submitted, and the list of approved campaigns. As of the publication of this story, the agency asked for an extension to deliver the requested information by Sept. 17, after the CPI’s original request on Aug. 20.

Electoral Initiatives Banned and Suspended at UPR

The Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) had a power outage the same day a voter registration call was scheduled to begin, while at the Humacao campus (UPRH), students and professors reported the cancellation of an initiative that promotes voting rights.

Adriana Piñero, president of the UPRH General Student Council, told the CPI that even though the campus administration canceled this year’s initiative related to electoral processes, “last year, one of our students managed to get the CEE to hold an initiative to register students on campus.” She mentioned that they managed then to have two CEE registration tables.

Piñero added that “we haven’t been able to carry out an effort like last year, despite attempts. A professor from the Social Sciences Department tried to hold an academic event on these topics and the importance of the electoral process, but the campus administration prohibited it. We don’t know why, but it was canceled.”

Luis Rafael Rodríguez, director of the Social Sciences Department at UPRH, explained that his department and the Dean of Academic Affairs approved the event, led by the nonprofit organization Proyecto 85. However, the Dean of Administration did not approve the initiative, he said

“It was a formative activity to promote the right to vote, nothing political [partisan]. Initially, this initiative by one of our Social Sciences professors was for two groups, but we decided to open it to all interested students, given the importance of these topics,” explained the economics professor.

Although he could not pinpoint the reasons for the Dean of Administration’s decision, Rodríguez believes it was a missed opportunity, given the current situation. He said discussions have begun to hold a registration event on campus, replicating the exercise carried out at other UPR campuses in partnership with the CEE. After the interview with CPI, UPRH’s General Student Council announced that electoral registration would be held on campus on Thursday, Sept. 12.

At the Río Piedras campus, over 600 people were registered in an event last semester, while 1,300 were able to solve other electoral matters. This shows that “there is indeed a response from the students and the community,” said interim president of the General Student Council, Fabiola Del Valle.

This time, they organized an event with the CEE from Sept. 3 to Sept. 5, but the CEE Registration Board staff did not arrive on time. Although they were scheduled to start at 8:00 a.m., they arrived half an hour late and didn’t begin working until 9 a.m. on the first day. Additionally, a printer malfunctioned. “I mentioned to the press earlier what was happening, and magically, all the machines started working without any issues,” said the university student.

Although the student organizations coordinating the event requested at least five officials for the voters’ procedures, only three arrived.

“The first student arrived at 6:30 in the morning and left at 9:10. There are students who have had to leave because they have classes and can’t wait that long,” Del Valle said.

Despite the long line, printer issues, and shortage of CEE staff, first-year UPRRP student José Carlos Santiago Ortiz found “the process was quick and easy. The photo and printing [of the ID card] took some time, but it was straightforward.” The process to obtain his voter ID took him about two hours.

Santiago Ortiz noted that his motivation to participate in the event “was my mom, and she gave me everything I needed [regarding documents] to register.”

The CEE reported that during the three-day event at the Río Piedras campus, 944 university students registered to vote.