Despite a high level of election transparency, one that Jimmy Carter called “the best in the world”, the US and its allies have accused Venezuela of election fraud. Caleb Maupin breaks down how Venezuela’s electoral system really works. by Caleb T. Maupin Part 1 The State Department has announced that the United States, unlike Russia and China, will not recognize the results of Venezuela’s May 20 election. Canada and a few Latin American allies of the U.S. joined in rejecting the results. The vote re-elected Nicolas Maduro to a second six-year presidential term. Maduro, who won a solid majority of 67 percent of votes cast, is a former bus driver and labor activist, and leads the United Socialist Party (PSUV). He ran on a platform of continuing the “Bolivarian Revolution,” a process launched by his predecessor Hugo Chavez, named in honor of South American independence fighter Simon Bolivar. The stated goal of the Bolivarian process is to bring Venezuela toward “21st C