The 1931 Presidential Election and the First Biometric Identity Card in Peru

The distribution of the libreta electoral (voting card) ahead of the presidential elections of 1931 in Peru marks the transition from the use of biometrics by police forces to the public sphere. Amidst the economic, political, and social disruption provoked by the Great Depression in Latin America and elsewhere, the 1931 election sought to restore the fragile contract between citizens and political institutions after the end of the presidency of Augusto B. Leguía and the coup by military leader Luis M. Sánchez Cerro.

Until then, identification and biometrics had been confined to obscure police stations and prisons. However, the elections coincided with a rapid modernization of the state and the introduction of new devices such as identity cards. For the purposes of the 1931 election, the newly created National Jury of Elections designed a special portable card that contained the most salient biometric features: fingerprints, personal information, a photograph, and signature. This paper examines how this juncture favored the transition from a technological expertise aimed to register suspects and potential criminals into a crucial instrument of citizenship and expansion of democracy such as the libreta electoral.

Focusing on the 1931 presidential election — and drawing from various kinds of archives and primary sources—, I study the strategies and mechanisms displayed by individual and mass political parties to provide voting cards for their members and potential voters in Lima and elsewhere. The abrupt introduction of photos and the possession of a personal document were two major innovations that defined the rest of the century, characterized by a tension between those who were able to obtain an identity card and those who were excluded as non-citizens based on racial and social criteria.