“Isn't it paper?“ This is how almost 90-year-old Alexandra, known in the village of Gorno Tserovene as Grandma Tsanka, greeted the news of the machine voting. She arrived at the polling station with the help of two crutches, without her glasses and without knowing that for the first time she would have to vote with a device.
“Oh, do I know who I'm going to vote for?“, asks the elderly woman, after the members of the section committee explain to her that this time she will not use a paper ballot.
About 15 minutes later, Grandma Tsanka manages to finish voting. “This is not for crazy people like me“, she says after meeting the machine. The story was shown by bTV Novinite.
309 voters on the list
The machine appears for the first time in Gorno Tserovene, after the number of voters in the village surprisingly increased to 309 people. The list also includes people with a current address.
„This time the list also includes those with a current address“, explains Melani Ivanova, chairwoman of the section election commission.
First vote for a young voter
Among the people who are meeting the machine for the first time is Iliyan. He recently became an adult and is participating in elections for the first time.
„I will vote for the one I think is best. To fix Bulgaria, to reduce the prices of food, fuel, absolutely everything, because it just doesn't work that way," says the young voter.
In Gorno Tserovene, machine voting brings together an elderly person who is worried about the technology in advance, and a young voter for whom this is their first vote.