We have not yet mastered the machines, now we are switching to scanners. This was said on the air of “Crossroads” by Prof. Mihail Konstantinov - director of “Electoral Analyses and Forecasts” at “Gallup International Balkan”. According to him, in any case, there will be no elections until the New Year, and maybe even until the presidential elections, which will take place in early November next year.
The deputies are preparing changes to the Electoral Code. One of the ideas is for the voting machines to be replaced by new scanning devices that would count the ballots and thus eliminate counting by hand. Another goal that the parties set for themselves is to clear the electoral rolls of so-called “dead souls”.
“The MPs for some reason think they understand elections - something that is not confirmed by practice. Their favorite pastime is to quibble about the Electoral Code. Their latest idea in itself is neither good nor bad. The ballots are counted with scanners in almost all American states and in the Russian Federation. That is, the two super large nuclear poles, which can destroy the world 5 times”, explained Konstantinov. But according to him, this does not mean that it will be a good change for our system.
“Any such introduction, including these machines that currently exist, requires between 5 and 10 years to be mastered by the people and the election administration”, he commented.
“We have not yet mastered the machines, now we are moving on to the next ones. We will probably remove them, we will land on the new technology and most certainly in 1-2 years we will remove it too. I suggest that we act a little more radically and vote like Europe - with paper ballots. In Europe, machines vote in two places - in Brussels and in Bulgaria," Konstantinov added.
The expert explained that the ballot will be filled out by the voter, but will be counted by the machine.”I'm not saying it's bad, but it's another mockery of the Bulgarian voter, because we're lulling him from one change to another. People don't have time to get used to something and we're sending them to something else. I understand that there's some money to be spent, but let's do some good work in Bulgaria too”.
“In such cases, old machines are optimized. This should not be allowed not because it's expensive, but because it's stupid and annoys people. Let them vote one way for 10 years and get used to it,” commented the director of “Electoral Analysis and Forecasts.”
According to him, the goal is noble - to prevent commission members from noting preferences and carrying out manipulations. “But I think they can be avoided by training the election administration, by giving it a very good remuneration and by punishing the violators very harshly.”
“It is not the change in technology that makes elections fair. It is the honest and respectful attitude of the election administration to the electoral process that makes elections fair. The vast majority of them are honest people and we should thank them for their work. Only a few are those who abuse it,” he believes.