内容摘要：(The Associated Press agreed to use only his first and middle name because he’s in the country illegally and fears being separated from his family.)

(The Associated Press agreed to use only his first and middle name because he’s in the country illegally and fears being separated from his family.)

, a region long under dispute between Venezuela and neighboring Guyana.After voting Sunday, Maduro said the electronic polling process is “very fast and very easy,” seemingly justifying the lack of lines at polling centers. Earlier, his ruling-party ally, Gov. Freddy Bernal, explained the apparent low turnout similarly.

“We won’t see long lines because the process is very fast,” Bernal, who is seeking reelection as governor of the state of Táchira, told state television.Maduro also criticized opposition factions who asked people not to vote.“What did they win? They lost everything,” Maduro said three times regarding previous opposition boycotts. “They — the ones running that campaign — are nothing, and Venezuela continues its course.”

The ruling party controls 19 governorships and more than 90% of the National Assembly seats.But in Maduro’s Venezuela, regional elected officials, regardless of party affiliation, have limited impact on people’s lives because his highly centralized government controls practically everything from Caracas. The government also

by, for instance, disqualifying a candidate after the election or appointing a ruling-party loyalist to oversee the elected offices held by opponents, rendering them powerless.

Further, after the opposition won control of the National Assembly in 2015, Maduro created an election for members of a Constituent Assembly in 2017. That body, controlled by the ruling party, decreed itself superior to all other branches of government until it ceased to exist in 2020.BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Three Montana Army National Guard members face trespassing charges after authorities said they landed a Black Hawk helicopter in a mountain pasture on a private ranch to take several elk antlers before flying away.

A witness saw the May 4 landing and the person who owns the property reported it to officials, who tracked down the three guard members, Sweet Grass County Sheriff Alan Ronneberg said Thursday.The guardsmen had been on a training flight from the city of Billings to Helena, the state capital, said Major Ryan Finnegan with the Montana National Guard. The helicopter landed briefly in the pasture located in the foothills of the Crazy Mountains, where the crew members picked up two individual antlers and an old elk skull with antlers still attached, the sheriff said.

Elk antlers — which grow and drop off male animals annually — are highly prized and can be sold by the pound. They also are collected from the wild as keepsakes.The antlers and skull taken by the guardsmen were worth a combined $300 to $400, according to Ronneberg. They were later turned over to a state game warden.