Preparations for the upcoming presidential elections are entering a key stage. The Central Election Commission is expected to take action to prevent the voting machines, whose warranty has already expired.
In the October vote, voting is planned to be entirely machine-based in the polling stations with over 300 voters. Among other changes are the elimination of the limit of 20 polling stations in countries outside the European Union and the elimination of the “Abroad“ district.
Iva Lazarova from the Institute for the Development of the Public Environment and the former CEC chairman and election expert Alexander Andreev commented on the main risks facing the organization of the vote.
According to Iva Lazarova, the election schedule has already been adopted, and it sets the specific deadlines within which the CEC must act.
“We hope they will not wait until the last days for each deadline“, she commented.
Among the important tasks are the public procurement related to machines with expired warranties, the preparation of the information campaign and the training of the members of the sectional election commissions.
Following the changes to the Electoral Code, certification of the chairmen and secretaries of the SICs after training is also envisaged. According to experts, however, the short deadlines remain a serious challenge.
One of the main issues is the technical condition of the machines. According to Alexander Andreev, preventive maintenance should cover both the hardware and the printers.
It was the printer part that caused problems in previous elections – including cases of incomplete or illegible receipts.
According to Andreev, the CEC should give a clear answer in advance and what is meant by “confirmed votes“ in machine voting. It is necessary to be clear how it will proceed if there is a discrepancy between the number of voters, the votes recorded in the machine's memory, and the printed control receipts.
“We expect the Central Election Commission to make clear decisions in this direction – "and not at the last minute," he said.
According to experts, the rules should be known early enough to both voters and members of the sectional commissions.