TCS Seniors are registering and learning how to vote in Colombia for the first time in the 2022 presidential elections.  

This year’s elections will have their first-round voting on Sunday, May 29, and, if required, second-round voting will take place on June 19.

“In each round of voting you will be placed in a different location, I wish I could just have one location for each voting round,” Senior Tomas Ochoa, said.

The process of voting is digital and requires registering your ID on the official page of La Registraduria Nacional and only takes a few seconds. Once registered, voters are assigned a location and register  for Election day.  

“A voting judge will send you to a box or stand where you are trying to vote. And then you will just know close to all of the options you align yourself with and then put it in the box and you will be free,” Nicolas Escobar, Senior, said.

Even though most of the Seniors who have turned 18 are informed about the elections and know the general process of voting, many have not been able to register because of the pandemic there is a long waiting list for cedulas.

“I will try to vote it all depends on how fast my cedula comes in. My plan is to be able to do so I’ve been doing some research and I’ve been planning and trying to inform myself on who to vote,” Escobar said.

Seniors who have already turned 18 are getting ready to vote for the first time, and with this right comes great responsibility for learning how to vote, and exercising that right.

“I feel like with this new right, there also comes the responsibility to vote for who you think can make Colombia better as a country,” Tomas Ochoa, Senior, said.

Most Seniors understand that voting is an important civic act and their participation is an important responsibility. 

“The process of voting itself, I think it’s easy, you know, it’s pretty self-explanatory, but it is something that must be exercised in order to give this country a greater future” Escobar, said.