site.btaAll Voting Machines to Undergo Inventory Check Ahead of Elections

An inventory check will be carried out on every voting machine to be used in the elections, Central Election Commission (CEC) Spokesperson Stoyanka Balova-Tsvetkova said in an interview with bTV here on Monday, commenting the upcoming October 25 presidential elections. 

“On the recommendation of the company supplying the machines, we will completely replace the flash memory and the batteries on the machines’ motherboards to ensure that every machine starts up on election day. We have ordered quite a number of spare parts, primarily printers,” the CEC Spokesperson said.

The previous composition of the CEC is carrying out an inventory of machines that have been taken out of the electoral process, numbering around 2,000. The machines used in the previous elections will also be inspected, she added.

A price offer for the repair of the machines will be opened today [Monday], as they have not undergone preventive maintenance in recent years, Balova-Tsvetkova said. According to her, there is one offer covering all 12,837 machines. “We hope to have a signed contract by the end of the week so that repairs can begin as soon as possible. The deadline for having the machines ready and submitting them for certification is October 15,” she said.

“The report produced by the machine has the status of a tally sheet and constitutes the official result, but with the latest amendments to the Electotion Code, lawmakers provided for the possibility of counting the voting receipts. We are currently discussing the issue at the CEC, but perhaps, in the interest of transparency, we will adopt the first approach [counting the receipts]. This, however, will be decided by the CEC,” Balova-Tsvetkova said.

Regarding video surveillance, she said that a procedure is currently under way to sign a contract with Information Services.

Asked about the lifting of restrictions on the number of polling stations in countries outside the European Union, the CEC Spokesperson said that around 5,500 applications had so far been submitted from Türkiye, Germany, England and the United States. “We are prepared to send a second voting machine when the sections are larger, while voting in sections with fewer than 300 voters will be conducted using paper ballots,” she said.

According to her, the possibility will remain next year for visually impaired voters to cast their ballots without an accompanying person, with the machine guiding them through additional functions.

September 29 is the deadline for submitting applications for the establishment of polling stations abroad, the CEC spokesperson added.