site.btaUPDATED Ballot Hash Code Generated for April 19 Snap Elections
The hash code to be printed on every ballot for the snap parliamentary elections on April 19, 2026, has been generated, caretaker Minister of Electronic Governance George Sharkov said at a briefing at the Ministry of Electronic Governance on Friday.
The procedure was carried out in a controlled environment at the Ministry of Electronic Governance building.
The hash code will be published on the Central Election Commission’s website. It is printed both when the machine starts up and on every ballot, allowing the two to be compared. Sharkov said this guaranteed that the code remained unchanged from the trusted build completed on Friday until the machines were installed and started up. He added that observers present during the procedure had raised no critical remarks.
Sharkov said the machines could not be tampered with and demonstrated how a voting machine operates.
Central Election Commission Chair Kamelia Neykova said the hash code confirms that the software to be used in the elections is the certified version approved for voting. She said Section Election Commissions are required to print a system slip and display it in a visible place at the polling station. If the hash code does not match the one on the ballot, the relevant District Election Commission and the Central Election Commission must be notified immediately, Neykova said.
To ensure that voting machines with certified software are delivered to polling stations, the Ministry of Electronic Governance on Thursday submitted to the Central Election Commission a list of more than 100 civil servants and experts with the requisite expertise who will carry out checks to ensure the machines are inspected before being prepared and packed for transport, Neykova said. She added that the ministry was ready to inspect 100% of the machines to be used. In the elections at the end of 2024, about 30% of the machines were checked because of time constraints, Neykova said.
She noted that Ciela Norma, the contractor for machine voting, is required to provide technicians to every Section Election Commission where machine voting is used.
/RY/
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