site.btaMaking Voting Machines Ubiquitous Too Soon Can Be Risky, Public Council Warns

Making Voting Machines Ubiquitous Too Soon Can Be Risky, Public Council Warns

Sofia, February 2 (BTA) - An abrupt increase in the number of voting machines without due preparation can become a stumbling bloc in organizing political elections, the Public Council at the Central Election Commission said in a statement Thursday. The Council believes that the future of machine voting should be decided after comprehensive analysis and a public debate.

The news comes a day after the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that machine voting must be an option in all voting sections, not just in 500 sections as suggested by the Central Election Commission for the March 26 early parliamentary elections.

The Public Council went on to say that machine voting - the way it has been tested and implemented in Bulgaria - offers two main advantages. First, it speeds up and facilitates the marking and counting of the votes, and second, it reduces subjectivity in processing the results, which is the most difficult part of the work of section election commissions.

During last November's presidential elections, the share of voters who chose to use a machine in a given voting section rarely exceeded 25 or 30 per cent, the Public Council recalled. Some section election commissions realized that the voting machines facilitated their work and encouraged voters to use them, while other commissions remained passive in this respect and very few voters used the machines in their sections.

Those voters who used voting machines in the presidential elections were people of all ages and they viewed the technology positively. Few of them were too slow in using the machines. The conclusion is that the technology works, but its popularity is increasing slowly, the Public Council said.

Dessislava Atanassova of the GERB party said the Central Election Commission had enough time to turn to the National Assembly if it wanted to have the Election Code amended in order to slow down the introduction of voting machines. Atanassova said that the Commission had several months to organize a public procurement procedure for the supply of the machines. But she believes that no one in the Commission should be made to resign over these failings, because the Commission has elections to organize.