If I were abroad, I would vote absentee.

They have to go to the consulate as far as I understand.

Chavez is one of the reasons they left Venezuela.

Although I'm sure the chavistas are totally turned on by the prospect that Chavez wins by that much.

Chavez: Venezuela to close consulate in Miami.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that his government will close its consulate in Miami after the U.S. government expelled a diplomat.

Chavez said he decided the consulate will shut its doors in response to what he called an unfair action by the U.S. State Department.

“We're going to close it. It's OK. There won't be a consulate in Miami,” Chavez said during his annual speech to the National Assembly.

Livia Acosta Noguera, Venezuela's consul general in Miami, was ordered out of the U.S. last weekend followed an FBI investigation into allegations that she discussed a possible cyber-attack on the U.S. government while she was assigned to the Venezuelan Embassy in Mexico. The allegations were detailed in a documentary aired by the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2012/jan/13/1/chavez-venezuela-to-close-consulate-in-miami-ar-347202/

Her statements, regardless, were highly inappropriate.

Here's the previous DU thread where this wad discussed: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101420710

edit: to add one thing, this hardly justifies the closure of the consulate in Miami. It would be as if we closed the Venezuelan US Embassy because they ousted our our ambassador for calling Chavez crazy. You don't close your own consulate or embassy because someone else acts against you. Unless you want to disenfranchise people.

Venezuelan elections are.

The elections are clean, it's the electoral commission that is full of crony fascists who want to disenfranchise as many as they can. It's OK because they're perceived as "left wing." (Only right wingers disenfranchise the vote on this level.)