Home > 1.3.2.2.2 Distance voting > ROMANIA - Law no. 208/2015 on the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, as well as on the organisation and functioning of the Permanent Electoral Authority
 
 
 
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Article 85
 

(1) Candidates and members of the electoral bureaus of the polling stations shall have the right to challenge the identity of a person asking to vote. In such cases, the president of the electoral bureau of the polling station shall determine the identity of the person in question, by any legal means.


(2) If the challenge is well-grounded, the president of the electoral bureau of the polling station shall prevent the contested voter from voting, record the fact in the minutes and inform the competent authorities about this situation.


(3) The president of the electoral bureau of the polling station may suspend the voting for well-founded reasons.


(4) The total length of the suspensions cannot exceed one hour. The suspension shall be notified by posting on the door of the voting premises, immediately after the occurrence of the event having led to the suspension.


(5) During the suspension, the ballot boxes, the stamps, the ballot papers and the other documents and materials of the electoral bureau of the polling station shall remain under permanent guard. During the suspension, it is forbidden for more than half of the members of the electoral bureau of the polling station to leave the voting room at the same time.


(6) The candidates and the persons accredited to attend the voting under this law shall not be forced to leave the voting room during this interval.


(7) The presence of any person other than the voter inside the polling booth is forbidden.


(8) The voter who, for well-founded reasons, ascertained by the president of the electoral bureau of the polling station, cannot vote on his/her own shall be entitled to call an attendant of his/her choosing, to help him/her in the polling booth. The attendant must not be an observer or a member of the electoral bureau of the polling station.


(9) The president of the electoral bureau of the polling station or, in his/her absence, his/her alternate must uphold and register any written referral concerning irregularities during the voting process, submitted by members of the electoral bureau of the polling station, candidates, accredited observers, accredited representatives of the written press, radio and television, Romanian and foreign, or voters present in the polling station for exercising their right to vote. If the referral is remitted to him/her in two copies, the president of the electoral bureau of the polling station, respectively his/her alternate, shall mention on the copy remitted to the author of the referral the fact that (s)he has been informed about the respective referral and the number under which it is registered.


(10) For the citizens with the right to vote in the respective electoral constituency, who cannot present themselves at the premises of the polling station due to an illness or disability, the president of the electoral bureau of the polling station may approve, upon their writtenrequest, accompanied by copies of the documents attesting the respective medical condition or disability, registered with the polling station closest to the place of their location on the day of the vote, that a team composed of at least two members of the electoral bureau should go with a special ballot box and the materials needed for voting - the “VOTED” stamp and ballot papers - to the voter’s location, so that (s)he could vote. A single special ballot box shall be used within the jurisdiction of a polling station. Only the members of the electoral bureau of the polling station may carry the special ballot box, under escort by the staff of the Ministry of Interior. In the case of citizens who cannot present themselves at the premises of the polling station, the written requests can be sent through other persons or through the specialised personnel of the healthcare units where they are admitted, where appropriate.


(11) In the cases stipulated under paragraph (10), the voting shall only take place based on an excerpt drawn up by the president of the electoral bureau himself/herself from the permanent electoral list or the additional list existing at that polling station. The excerpt shall be signed by the president and stamped, and the persons comprised in these excerpts must be erased from the other electoral lists existing at the polling station.


(12) Only those persons domiciled within the jurisdiction of the national electoral constituency may vote in the manner stipulated under paragraphs (10) and (11).


(13) The personal identification numbers of the voters having filed applications under paragraph (10) are pre-recorded in the Computer system for monitoring turnout and preventing illegal voting and then they are finally registered upon the return, to the voting premises, of the team referred to in paragraph (10), based on the signatures in the excerpt referred to in paragraph (11).


(14) Before the team of members of the electoral bureau of the polling station heads with a special ballot box to the persons who cannot vote at the polling station according to the law, the president of the electoral bureau of the polling station shall request the operator to verify whether or not those persons have already exercised their right to vote on that day.