“The election must be overturned”. The right to vote of indigenous people and foreigners in a frontier town (Buenos Aires, 1860s)

Abstract

 This paper analyzes electoral politics in the frontier of the Pampas during the creation of the Argentine state, focusing on an episode that occurred in Veinticinco de Mayo (Buenos Aires province): the voting of the indigenous people and militia in the municipal elections of 1868 and the neighborhood petition to cancel it. Through the qualitative and quantitative analysis of documentary sources of different origins, formats and types, the electoral process is identified and reconstructed: who participated, in what way, their social and political profiles, the arguments, legal means, and interests that were brought into play. The results shed light on the conflicts over the right to vote and the central role that nationality, residence, and work played in political action.