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Article 65
 

Conduct of polling


1. Each voter shall vote personally. It is restricted to vote in the place of another person.


2. Voting shall be conducted under the procedure and in the sequence as follows:


a) on entering the polling room, a voter shall be checked for ink; if a voter is not inked, he/she shall be allowed to vote. A commission member responsible for regulating the voters flow in the polling room shall allow a voter into the polling room only after the voter presents his/her identity document and if not more than two voters are standing at the registration desk that is designated for that voter;
b) after entering the polling room a voter shall go to the registration desk corresponding to the first letter of his/her last name in the list of voters, and shall present to the registrar of voters a Georgian citizen’s ID card or passport; an internally displaced person (IDP) from the occupied territories of Georgia shall additionally present an IDP card. The registrar of voters shall check that the voter's registration data in the presented document(s) correspond to the data on the lists of voters, and that the voter's face and the photos in the presented document(s) and the photos in the lists of voters match. If the match is verified, the registrar of voters shall ink the voter and sign in a respective box in the list of voters, after which the voter will confirm the receipt of ballot paper(s) by his/her signature. When issuing a ballot paper(s), a registrar of voters shall sign in the appropriate box on the back of the ballot paper(s) and certify the ballot paper(s) with a special seal;
c) after endorsing a ballot paper(s), a voter shall enter a secret polling booth and fill out the ballot paper(s) as defined by this Law. After filling out the ballot paper(s), the voter shall fold it (them) so that it is impossible to see who/what he/she voted for;
d) a voter shall take the folded ballot paper(s) to a desk standing separately, shall independently take a special envelope and put the ballot paper(s) therein. Only a voter shall have the right to put a ballot paper(s) in a special envelope. An election commission member may not open the filled out ballot paper(s) or otherwise violate the secrecy of voting;
e) not more than 1 voter at a time shall be allowed at a ballot box;
f) a commission member supervising a ballot box and special envelopes shall be permanently present by the ballot box. He/she shall keep closed the ballot box opening for inserting envelopes and shall open it only after making sure that a voter has only one envelope in hand;
g) after the end of the election, the ballot box opening for inserting envelopes shall be sealed.


21. If the verification under paragraph (2)(b) of this article confirms that the registration data (except for a photo) contained in the presented document(s) correspond to the data contained in the list of voters, but the registrar of voters considers that the face of the voter does not match the photo in the presented document or the photo in the list of voters, the registrar of voters shall apply to the PEC chairperson. The PEC chairperson shall allow the voter to vote after performing the procedure specified in paragraph (22) of this article.


22. If the PEC chairperson:


a) confirms inconsistency defined in paragraph (21) of this article, the PEC secretary shall make a record in the log-book, on a specially designated page, specifying the fact of inconsistency, the voter's name, last name and serial number in the list of voters. That record shall be certified by the  ignatures of a PEC chairperson and a PEC secretary. The PEC secretary shall attach the photocopy of the document presented by the voter to the log-book, and certify it with his/her signature;
b) does not confirm the inconsistency defined in the paragraph (21) of this article but the registrar of voters, who detected the inconsistency, does not agree with him/her, the registrar of voters shall record and certify with signature his/her special opinion in the log-book, on a specially designated page, after which the PEC secretary shall add to that record the voter's name, surname and the serial number in the list of voters and certify the record with his/her signature. The PEC secretary shall attach the photocopy of the document presented by the voter to the logbook, and certify it with his/her signature.


3. It is restricted for any other person to be present at the moment of filling out a ballot paper. A voter who is unable to fill out a ballot paper independently may ask any person for help in the secret polling booth except for:


a) a member of an election commission
b) a candidate
c) a representative of an electoral subject
d) an observer
e) representatives of press and other media.


4. If a voter or a PEC member spoils a ballot paper or a special envelope, he/she shall inform the PEC chairperson thereof, re-submit the spoiled ballot paper/special envelope, and get a new one. A corner of the spoiled ballot paper/special envelope shall be cut off in the presence of a voter, the word ’spoiled‘ shall be written thereon, and then the spoiled ballot paper/special envelope shall be signed by the PEC chairperson and stored separately.


5. Members of a PEC and persons authorised to be present at a polling place may require a voter, before he/she goes into the polling booth and places the ballot paper(s) into a special envelope, to show them that he/she has the exact number of ballot papers and special envelopes in hand as defined by  his Law. A voter shall be obliged to comply with this requirement.


6. A PEC secretary shall, on the polling day, count the number of signatures of voters in the list of voters twice, at 12:00 and at 17:00, and record the number of signatures of voters in the PEC demonstration protocol and log-book.


7. If the seal integrity of a ballot box is lost during elections, a PEC shall stop the voting process and shall decide by ordinance whether or not to re-seal the ballot box and resume polling.


8. A polling place shall be closed at 20:00. Voters standing in the line by that time may vote. For this purpose, one of the election commission members shall, by order of the PEC chairperson, register the first and last names of voters waiting in the line and inform the PEC chairperson about the number thereof, while the commission secretary shall enter the number of voters standing in the line into the log-book. The PEC chairperson shall announce that only voters standing in the line have the right to vote.


9. After closing a polling place, authorised persons of a PEC set up for exceptional cases shall take the ballot box and electoral documents of an electoral precinct established for exceptional cases to a polling place pre-designated by a DEC.