with who governs but rather that those in power respect the rule of law." Súmate was originally composed of a group of professionals, but by 2004 it grew to include 30,000 volunteers from across Venezuela and all walks of life. Recall referendum, 2004 In 2003, Súmate organized a campaign to force a recall referendum revoking the remainder of the term in office of President Chávez, as provided for under Article 72 of the Constitution of Venezuela, which permits citizens to request a recall if signatures are collected from 20% of the electorate. The recall vote was held on 15 August 2004. A record number of voters turned out but the recall was defeated with a 59% "no" vote. The Carter Center concluded the results were accurate, but European Union observers did not oversee the referendum, saying too many restrictions were put on their participation by the government. An exit poll by US company Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB) predicted that Chávez would lose by 20%, whereas the election results showed him to have won by 20%. Schoen commented, "I think it was a massive fraud". PSB used Súmate personnel as fieldworkers. Publication or broadcast of exit polls was banned by electoral authorities, but results of the PSB poll went out to media outlets and opposition offices several hours before polls closed. Jimmy Carter said that Súmate "deliberately distributed this erroneous exit poll data in order to build up, not only the expectation of victory, but also to influence the people still standing in line". Following the recall vote, Súmate requested that Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard University and Roberto Rigobón of MIT perform a statistical analysis analyzing how fraud could have occurred during the referendum. They concluded that the vote samples audited by the government were not a random representation of all precincts and that opposition witnesses and international observers were not allowed near the computer hub on election day. CEPR, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, reports that other economists have called the Harvard/MIT assumptions about how fraud was conducted unlikely. Chávez branded the leaders of Súmate as "conspirators", "coup plotters" and "lackeys of the U.S. government". After the referendum, members of Súmate were charged with treason and conspiracy, under Article 132 of the Venezuelan Penal Code, accused of receiving financial support for their activities from the NED. The trial has been postponed several times. The criminal charges