The Central Election Commission sent new instructions for machine voting to municipalities and district election commissions before the second round of the presidential elections on November 1. The reason was identified cases of an interrupted process in the first round, in which the vote was not recorded on the flash memory, although the machine issued a partial receipt.
The CEC urges voters not to remove the card in advance and not to pull out the control receipt before the sound signal. According to the commission's spokesperson, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Stoyanka Balova, this may lead to the process not being completed and the vote not being recorded.
„The instructions are not to pull the receipt earlier, before the sound signal is heard, as this is also a prerequisite for not completing the process completely and recording the vote“, Balova said.Instructions have also been given on what to do in the event of a power outage. In the first round, technical malfunctions were detected in a total of 31 devices - two abroad and 29 in the country. In 27 sections, there were two machines, which allowed voting to continue.
Among the failures are a broken display and machines that did not start due to burnt motherboards. According to Balova, some of the problems occurred during transportation. According to the contract with the contractor, the damage must be repaired in the week before the runoff, and no payment will be made for unused machines.
Alternative organization without screens
Problems were also reported in the first round with ensuring the secrecy of the vote. In some places, screens were missing due to undelivered clips for attaching them. For the second round, tongs will not be provided, but the CEC has given instructions on how to organize the space around the machines.
The goal is not to put the voter in a dark room, but to preserve the secrecy of the vote and for the members of the sectional commission to be able to observe the process.
The commission considers the insufficient preparation of some of the sectional commissions to react to problems with the machines as a weakness of the first round. Therefore, additional instructions were sent before the runoff.
The CEC states that they are ready for a higher voter turnout.
„For the Central Election Commission, the process in terms of organization is the same, no matter how much the turnout is. We should take the same actions“, said Stoyanka Balova.After the first round, all sections abroad were accepted by 6 am, and the regional election commissions submitted their reports on Monday.
Sources: bntnews.bg