site.btaElection Code Amended to Improve Voting Accessibility for Blind People

Voting secrecy for blind and visually impaired people has now been guaranteed through amendments to the Election Code, MP Ivan Yanev of Progressive Bulgaria said during a briefing at the National Assembly on Thursday.

Voting machines will now be equipped with audio guidance, while voters with visual impairments will be able to enlarge the font size on the screen, Yanev said.

According to him, the changes will benefit not only people with officially recognized visual impairments but also many elderly voters who have difficulty reading. Those voting with paper ballots will be provided with tactile ballot templates, he added.

"These amendments guarantee the secrecy of the vote, which until now has effectively been a shared secret," Yanev said, describing the day as a historic one for Bulgarian law. He said the changes address an issue that had remained outside the institutions' real agenda for decades.

Yanev explained that the amendments will not be implemented for this October's presidential election because the voting machines were originally procured without the necessary accessibility requirements. Instead, the new provisions will take effect for the 2027 local elections, with the state continuing to use the existing machines.

To enable audio instructions and other accessibility features, additional software will need to be developed and installed on the existing machines, he added.

Yanka Tyankova, Chair of the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee, said the existing voting machines will require a separate procurement procedure for the new software needed to enable accessible voting for people with disabilities. The Central Election Commission can launch the procurement only after the legislation has been adopted, promulgated and entered into force, Tyankova said.

"That cannot happen in time for this election, which is why we decided it would be better to introduce the changes for the next local elections," she said.

Tyankova added that the amendments are intended to make the voting process more transparent and reduce opportunities for abuse.