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Article 67
 

Voting at Home and Early Voting


1. Only the following persons may vote at home: disabled voters, voters with temporary working incapacity, voters aged 70 and over if because of the health condition they are unable to come to a polling district to vote on an election day, have produced a voter’s request for voting at home of the form set by the Central Electoral Commission and are entered on the rolls of voters voting at home. The electoral committees which draw up and revise rolls of voters voting at home shall have the right to receive the data on disabled persons from the register of the Republic of Lithuania of persons covered with state social insurance and recipients of state social insurance benefits and from processors of data on the establishment of levels of employability and disability, and the data on persons with temporary working incapacity – from register of the Republic of Lithuania of persons covered with state social insurance and recipients of state social insurance benefits and healthcare institutions. The electoral committees may not disseminate such data and shall use the data only for compilation and revision of rolls of voters voting at home.


2. Voters who are unable to come to a polling district to vote on an election day may vote early. Early voting shall be organised by a constituency electoral committee. Early voting must take place from 8 am to 8 pm on the Wednesday and Thursday preceding an election day in the premises which are prepared in advance, suitable for voting and located in the building in which the workplace of the mayor (director of the administration) of the municipality in the territory of which a polling district is situated. If a constituency comprises the territories of several municipalities, early voting shall be organised in all those municipalities. For issuing and collecting ballot papers and postal voting envelopes during early voting the chairman of an electoral committee of a constituency shall appoint not less than two members of a constituency electoral committee or polling district electoral committee who may not be proposed by the same political party. The chairman of a constituency electoral committee or by order of the said chairman – a member of the constituency committee shall supervise early voting. The chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, a member of this Commission authorized by its chairman or the chairman of a constituency electoral committee, upon having established in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission the cases of electoral bribery, giving somebody a ride to a voting place, encouraging to vote for consideration or other serious violations of electoral rights, must suspend early voting until the violations are eliminated and it is possible to freely and democratically hold the elections pursuant to the requirements of this Law.


3. When run-off or by-elections to the Seimas are held not in all single-member constituencies formed in the Republic of Lithuania, early voting shall be organized in these constituencies according to the procedure laid down in paragraph 2 if this Article. In other constituencies voters may vote early in central post offices of counties in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission.


4. Voters’ requests for voting at home shall be submitted to polling district electoral committees. The committees shall begin to accept requests of voters, residing within the territory of a concrete polling district, for voting at home by handing roll cards to such voters and end accepting the requests on the Wednesday preceding an election day. The committees shall end accepting requests of voters, who temporarily stay within the territory of a concrete polling district and have not been entered on the roll of voters of this polling district, for voting at home on the Tuesday preceding an election day. A voter, who because of his physical disability is unable to fill in a request for voting at home or to hand it to a polling district electoral committee, may authorise his family member, neighbour or a person who takes care of him, or an electoral committee member to carry out the said actions for him. These persons shall sign the voter’s request and indicate their name, surname and personal number.


5. On the Thursday preceding an election day a polling district electoral committee shall draw up and approve a roll of voters voting at home who are entered on the electoral roll of that polling district. On the Wednesday preceding an election day a constituency electoral committee shall draw up and approve a roll of voters who reside or temporarily stay within the territory of a concrete polling district but have been entered on the electoral roll of another polling district and have not been entered on the electoral roll of this polling district when revising them.



6. On the Friday or Saturday preceding an election day, from 8 am till 8 pm at least two members of a polling district electoral committee shall deliver postal voting envelopes and ballot papers to the homes of the voters who have been entered on the roll of the polling district voters voting at home and who are the voters of this polling district. On the Thursday preceding an election day at least two members of a constituency electoral committee or, by order of its chairman, at least two members of a polling district electoral committee shall deliver postal voting envelopes and ballot papers to the homes of the voters who have been entered on the roll of the constituency voters who vote at home, but who have not been entered on the electoral roll of the polling district within the territory of which they temporarily stay. Voting at home and early voting may be observed by election observers who have a certificate to observe elections in any polling district of this constituency. After the end of voting, sealed return envelopes shall be transferred to the constituency electoral committee which transfers them to polling districts together with election documents of the voters who have voted by post. The rolls of voter who have voted at home and early, ballot papers which have not been used shall be including into an accounting and stored by an electoral committee which has organised the voting, and after the end of elections they shall be transferred together with other election documents to an appropriate constituency committee or the Central Electoral Commission.


7. A concrete schedule of electoral committee members’ coming to the homes of voters shall be approved by the chairman of a polling district electoral committee or a constituency electoral committee not later than, respectively, on the Thursday or Wednesday preceding the noon of an election day. This schedule shall be public; its copy shall be posted up on the notice board of the polling district (constituency electoral) committee on the day of approval. Only the electoral committee members and election observers proposed by the different political parties may come together to the homes of the voters.


8. The provisions of paragraphs 6 and 7 of Article 67 of this Law shall apply to voting at home and early voting.


9. The sealed return envelope (with the poll card, ballot paper envelope and ballot papers in it) the voter shall hand to a member of the polling district (constituency electoral) committee. Upon having received the return envelope handed by the voter, the abovementioned committee member shall seal it with a special mark in the presence of the voter and give the voter a receipt confirming the acceptance of this envelope.


10. It shall be prohibited to exert influence on the determination of a voter who votes at home or to hasten his voting. Committee members and observers shall be prohibited from carrying out the actions for a voter, referred to in paragraphs 6 and 7 of Article 67 of this Law, as well as from accepting an unsealed return envelope from a voter. Voters shall be prohibited from taking out ballot papers or giving them to other persons.