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Article 81.
 

Procedure for Printing Ballot Papers


1. The Central Election Commission shall provide for the centralized production of ballot papers no later than seven days prior to the day of voting, pursuant to an agreement that shall be concluded between the Central Election Commission and state-run printing enterprises.


2. The enterprises printing the ballot papers shall ensure strict correspondence between the number of ordered ballot papers and the number of printed ones, and the accounting and transfer thereof to the customer according to procedures established by the Central Election Commission.


3. Any technical waste material, defective printed ballot papers, as well as the typographic plates used, shall be destroyed according to the procedures and within the time limits defined by the agreement concluded for the production of ballot papers.


4. Control over the production of ballot papers by the printing enterprises and over the observance of the requirements regarding destruction of the printing forms, technical wastes, and defective printed matter shall be exercised by a supervisory commission created by the Central Election Commission based on submissions from the parties whose parliamentary factions are registered with the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the current convocation, as of the start of the election process, but no later than on the day of approval of the ballot paper form.


5. The ballot papers shall be received by the Central Election Commission in the printing enterprise’s packaging on the basis of a receipt and delivery report in a form approved by the Central Election Commission. Based on the receipt and delivery reports, summary information on the number of nationwide election district and single-mandate election district ballot papers that were printed for each election district shall be published no later than one day prior to the day of voting on the official website of the Central Election Commission.


6. Subject to the consent of the Central Election Commission, ballot papers can be produced directly by the precinct election commission of a special election precinct created on a ship sailing, as of the day of voting, under the National Flag of Ukraine, or on Ukraine’s polar station, their number exceeding by 0.5 percent the number of voters at the election precinct. Such consent shall be granted no later than three days prior to the day of voting on the basis of an application filed by the respective district election commission, which shall contain the number of the election precinct created on the respective ship or Ukraine’s polar station, as well as the time when the respective ship left the last port in the territory of Ukraine. Information on the number of produced ballot papers shall be entered in the precinct election commission’s protocol on vote counting at the election precinct and be taken into account by the relevant district election commission when compiling protocols on the results of vote counting in the nationwide district within the single-mandate district and in the single-mandate district as well as by the Central Election Commission when compiling the protocol on the results of voting in the nationwide district within the foreign election district.


{Paragraph 2 Part 6 Article 81 as amended pursuant to the Law № 709-VII dd. 21.11.2013}


7. If the Central Election Commission cancels the registration of all MP candidates of a party in the nationwide election district during or after the period of production of the ballot papers and the remaining time is insufficient to allow re-printing the ballot papers, the Central Election Commission shall adopt a decision on making amendments to the nationwide election district ballot papers. Such decision of the Central Election Commission shall be immediately communicated to the relevant district election commissions, so that the precinct election commissions will make the appropriate amendments. If the Central Election Commission adopts a decision canceling the registration of a candidate (or candidates) in a single-mandate election district or a decision removing a candidate from the ballot during or after the period of production of the ballot papers and the remaining time is insufficient to allow re-printing of the ballot papers, the Central Election Commission shall adopt a decision on making amendments to the ballot papers of the respective single-mandate election district. Such decision of the Central Election Commission shall be immediately communicated to the respective district election commission. The district election commission shall immediately report this decision to the precinct election commissions, so that they will make the appropriate amendments. 


Such amendments to the ballot papers shall be made by the precinct election commission members using the “Withdrawn” stamp at a meeting of the precinct election commission. It shall be prohibited to make amendments to the nationwide election district ballot paper without a decision of the Central Election Commission. It shall be prohibited to make amendments to the single-mandate election district ballot paper without a decision of the Central Election Commission. Each voter shall be informed of amendments made to a ballot paper at the time when the ballot paper is being issued to him or her.


8. The form of the stamp specified in Part 7 of this Article shall be approved by the Central Election Commission no later than twenty six days prior to the day of voting. District election commissions shall ensure the production of the aforementioned stamps no later than seven days prior to the day of voting. The stamps shall be kept in custody of the district election commission. A district election commission shall deliver the “Withdrawn” stamp to all precinct election commissions together with the respective decision of the Central Election Commission. The “Withdrawn” stamp shall be delivered to the precinct election commissions of foreign election district together with the ballot papers.


9. If ballot papers are amended in the absence of a decision of the Central Election Commission, or if such amendments fail to comply with the decision of the Central Election Commission, the precinct election commission shall, at its meeting, write a report in two copies, in the form and under the procedure specified by Part 8 Article 35 of this Law. The report shall state the number of ballot papers received, the number of spoiled nationwide election district ballot papers and/or single-mandate election district ballot papers, and the last names of the persons responsible for the spoiling. One copy of the report shall be immediately transferred to the district election commission, whereas the second copy shall be stored at the precinct election commission. The data contained in the aforementioned report shall be taken into consideration by the precinct election commission when drawing the vote counting protocols of the election precinct. The spoiled ballot papers shall be invalidated and packed separately, in [two] different packages, under the procedure specified by Part 6 Article 87 of this Law. The packages shall be marked as “Spoiled nationwide election district ballot papers” or “Spoiled single-mandate election district ballot papers.” The packed spoiled ballot papers shall be kept in custody of the precinct election commission until the day of voting and then forwarded to the district election commission together with other election documents under the procedure stipulated by Article 93 of this Law. During the calculation of votes, the spoiled ballot papers shall be counted as unused.


10. Persons responsible for the unlawful spoiling of ballot papers shall reimburse the cost of the damage under the procedure established by the law.