site.bta7,500 Voting Machines Installed and Validated Over Four Days

A total of 7,500 voting machines have been installed and validated over four days, representing about 80% of the total number used for voting in the country. For the first time, an effort is being made to verify all machines, the Ministry of E-Governance announced on Friday.

The number of quarantined machines is 500, which is expected and within normal limits.

Each machine is checked according to the instructions provided by the Central Election Commission. A verification is carried out to ensure that the original code is installed. The machine is then packed and sealed, with the seal recorded in a special protocol. The seal is only opened after the end of election day, in order to retrieve the flash drives containing the memory from the machines.

In Bulgaria, voting with machines will take place in more than 9,300 polling stations.

Later in the day, the voting machines will be transported to the various municipalities across the country. According to Rositsa Mateva, deputy chair of the Central Election Commission, all machines have been sealed after maintenance and are expected to be in the polling stations by Saturday.