Can he? In general, can/do popes vote in their home countries?
Argentina is the country whose citizenship you cannot legally lose (though dual citizenship is permitted), and they have mandatory* voting. So the Pope is still a citizen of Argentina and did vote or faced charges. I don’t think they allow exceptions.
* Edit: Not quite true. See replies.
Correction, voting is mandatory only for people who live in Argentina, if you live on another country voting is optional. Source: I’m an Argentinian who lives in another country.
But are you the Pope?
Oh shit. Are you?
I’ve got this.
OP, how do you feel about defecating in an arboreal setting?
I’m for it
Welcome to the big ARE YOU ACTUALLY THE POPE quiz!
- Are you an Argentinian living abroad?
- Do you regularly wear weird head gear?
- When visiting a new city. Does your Uber have a large glass cage instead of a rear compartment?
- Do strangers keep asking you to hold their children?
- Do you have a strange urge to poop when you are near forests?
If you can answer yes to all of the above, you should find the nearest cardinal and observe how you are addressed.
He’s just tweeting at me. What does it mean??
I do know for a fact that the Pope has someone working at the Vatican who is precisely the kind of nerd that might be on this site. The Pope himself…probably not.
Falklands.
It is possible to vote while outside the country by going to designated embassies but if you live outside of the country or are further away than 500km from your legal residence the day of the vote you are not obligated to vote. Also, a lot of people (above 20% on the last election) that should vote don’t despite it being mandatory since that law is pretty much never enforced in practice. Source: I’m Argentinean.
That’s amazing
This is fascinating. Assuming he follows the law of the land per the Bible (per my minimal understanding of the Bible…) he would be sinning to note vote. So the pope most likely voted by absentee ballot in Argentina, but also likely has diplomatic immunity in Argentina, and therefore could not be prosecuted for failure to vote.
I don’t think you are eligible for diplomatic immunity if you are a citizen. He might choose not to extradite himself but he plans a visit in 2024.
I think he either voted for Sérgio Massa, whom he supported publicly, or symbolically cast a blank ballot. The other options are to declare that he was ill or 500 km from the nearest polling place, or pay a 50-500 peso fine. None of these are off-limits for somebody with a good diplomatic position and a large amount of staff.
Iven if he can’t get true diplomatic immunity, I don’t think Argentina would trouble a foreign monarch over a 500 peso fine, even if he came back into the country.
Yes. I just listed the legal options I found. The law and its enforcement are different things: most domestic non-voters are not punished either, and they are likely going to let him pass even without a formal excuse; it would harm their reputation to be that petty.
He can also just not vote, he’s an Argentinian living in another country (just like me) so voting is optional for him.
500 peso fine? How will he ever be able to pay that? /s
According to google 500 argentine peso is 1.43USD
The law is apparently old and not enforced. The other consequence is that offenders cannot run for office for 3 years but I doubt they check every municipal candidate. I imagune it could turn up as a minor affair, though.
Have you ever been caught by Czech Hunter?
No, I’m too ugly. AI says I look like this and I’m not much prettier IRL. But the number of fake (hidden fee) taxis, Fake Taxis and fake Fake Taxis is larger than the number of honest taxis.
Pope is technically head of state or another country so it is probably bad to vote in any election just from the perspective of looks. The pope should be above politics.
Doesn’t even matter. It he didn’t there is a 50 peso fine that you can pay in 24 month installments.
Literally paying 0.5 cents in 2 years for missing a mandatory voting law lmao
