Procedure for Printing Ballot Papers
- The Central Election Commission shall provide for the centralized production of ballot papers for voting pursuant to an agreement that shall be concluded between the Central Election Commission and a state-run printing enterprise which produces and sells forms of strict reporting documents or other documents that require the use of special security features.
The agreement between the Central Election Commission and the respective enterprise shall be concluded using a negotiating procurement procedure, based on the production, technological and organizational capabilities of the enterprise to ensure timely printing and protection levels of the ballots.
- 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.
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.
- The ballot papers shall be received by the Central Election Commission (regional and/or territorial representations of the Central Election Commission) in the printing enterprise’s packaging on the basis of a receipt and delivery act in a form and manner approved by the Central Election Commission. Based on the receipt and delivery acts, summary information on the number of ballot papers that were printed for each territorial (out-of-country) district shall be published on the official website of the Central Election Commission
- Ballot papers for voting on the day of voting or on the day of repeat voting shall be printed on the same paper in a form and bearing the text approved by the Central Election Commission, and shall be identical in size, color and content.
- The text of a ballot paper shall be printed in the official language and shall be placed on one sheet and on one side only.
- Subject to 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 commission’s protocol on vote counting and be taken into account by the respective district election commission when compiling protocols on the results of vote counting in the respective territorial district.
- If the Central Election Commission cancels the registration of a candidate for President of Ukraine during or after the period of production of the ballot papers and the remaining time is insufficient to allow reprinting the ballot papers, the Central Election Commission shall adopt a decision on making amendments to the ballot papers. Such decision of the Central Election Commission shall be immediately communicated to the respective district election commissions, so that the precinct election commissions 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 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.
The form of the “Withdrawn” stamp shall be approved by the Central Election Commission no later than twenty-six days prior to the day of voting. District election commissions (regional or territorial representations of the Central Election Commission) shall ensure the production of such stamps no later than seven days prior to the day of voting, or use stamps which have been made previously. During the election process stamps “Withdrawn” are stored in the district election commission (territorial representations of the Central 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 out-of-country election precincts together with the ballot papers.
- 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 an act in two copies. The act shall state the number of ballot papers received, the number of spoiled ballot papers, and the last names of the persons responsible for the spoiling. One copy of the act 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 act 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 different packages, under the procedure specified by this Code. The packages shall be marked as “Spoiled 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. During the calculation of votes, the spoiled ballot papers shall be counted as unused.
- Persons responsible for the unlawful spoiling of ballot papers shall reimburse the cost of the damage under the procedure established by the Law.
