Democracy - Costa Rican Style

Today is the Costa Rican presidential election as the Citizen's Action Party and the Libertarian Movement Party try to overcome the huge lead of National Liberation Party candidate and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias. I spent the morning at one of the polling stations, taking pictures and asking questions. I was very impressed with the level of youth activism. The girls pictured here are volunteers for the Libertarian Movement whose job it is to make sure that PML voters are able to get to the right polling booth and are able to cast their votes. The party atmosphere at the polls was amazing. Music, dancing and vendors selling juice (alcohol sales are suspended 30 hours before the polls open) all greet voters as they arrive. Each major party has a booth where they coordinate GOTV efforts and provide info to undecided voters. The kids also get to vote in a straw poll, the results of which are released at the same time that the official count is. As a libertarian it has been both heartening and informative to see an ideologically like-minded party compete and win. The PML is expected to increase their representation in Congress from 6 to 11, putting them neck and neck with the PAC as the second largest party, all within 10 years of the party's founding! I am hopeful that I will be able to use what I have learned to help our own Libertarians break the strangle hold that the Dems and Republicans have on the neck of the body politic in the States.