The Central Election Commission will provide 1,500 tactile templates for voting for people with visual impairments in the presidential elections on October 25, 2026. The decision was adopted unanimously with nine votes “in favor” after a nearly two-hour closed working discussion dedicated to technical and logistical issues.
The templates will be used when voting with paper ballots. They will be produced by the “Demaks“ printing house, and then transported to the regional election commissions.
The delivery deadline is October 23
The draft decision was submitted by Georgi Bakhanov. The initial proposal stated October 24 as the deadline for submitting the templates. The Deputy Chairman of the CEC, Ismail Osman, proposed that the date be changed to October 23 in order to leave enough time for the distribution and submission of the materials to the section election commissions.
According to the CEC decision, the printing house must deliver the templates to the regional election commissions no later than Friday, October 23. After that, the RECs, together with the municipal administrations, will hand them over to the designated section commissions along with instructions for their use.
“The goal of the decision is to provide equal opportunities for people with disabilities to vote independently“, noted Georgi Bakhanov.The section election commissions will assist visually impaired voters in voting with a paper ballot and a tactile template. The district election commissions and municipal administrations must inform citizens about the possibility of using this method of voting.
Sources: bntnews.bg