Voters will vote in the presidential elections on October 25 without printing on machine receipts. This is stated in the methodological instructions adopted by the Central Election Commission with Decision No. 343-PVR of October 13.
The paper that the machine prints after the vote no longer has the status of a ballot, but will be a control receipt. That is why the boxes in the sections will be labeled as “Control receipts from the machine“.
The instructions state: “The voter checks the data for his/her choice in the control receipt, folds the receipt with the text inside and necessarily puts it in the box“. Then he/she returns the smart card, signs the voter list, receives his/her identity document and leaves the polling station.
The protocol will bear the official result
Although the control receipts will be counted at the end of election day, the official bearer of the results of the machine voting will be the protocol printed by the device. The counting of the receipts is intended as an additional check and a measure of transparency.
The new rules also exclude re-voting in the event of a printing problem. If the machine prints an incomplete or blank receipt, the voter will not be able to vote again either by machine or with a paper ballot.
What happens in case of failure
In the event of a device failure, the section election commission will be able to suspend machine voting and will have to notify the district election commission with a protocol. In sections with two machines, suspension will occur if both devices fail.
The instructions do not specify a specific number of unsuccessful attempts, after which they switch to paper voting. BNT reported that 130 devices failed during the previous vote in April. As of October 13, nearly 8,000 out of a total of 12,800 machines have been repaired or diagnosed, and the full process is expected to be completed by October 15.
Sources: cik.bg, bntnews.bg