Organization and Procedure of Voting

1. Voting shall be held on the day of voting from 8:00 until 20:00 without any breaks.


2. The precinct election commission shall be responsible for organizing the conduct of voting and ensuring appropriate order in the premises for voting, and for ensuring the secrecy of the expression of the will of voters during the voting. If an offense is committed for which the legislation of Ukraine provides liability, the chair or deputy chair of the precinct election commission shall be entitled to invite into the premises for voting a representative of the police, who shall take such measures as are prescribed with respect to the perpetrator and then leave the premises for voting. In other cases, the presence of the police in the premises for voting shall be prohibited.


3. During the conduct of voting at an election precinct, two members of the precinct election commission shall provide a voter with the opportunity to vote: one member of the precinct election commission, upon presentation by the voter of one of the documents specified in clauses 1 and 2 of Part one of Article 8 of this Code, and if the voter is included in the voter list for the respective election precinct and if he or she has the right to vote in the respective local election (considering the presence of the mark in the column “Notes” as regards his or her permanent inability to move independently, or a record “Votes at the place of his or her stay”), shall hand the voter list to the voter for his or her signature; the other member of the precinct election commission shall enter his or her last name and initials and put his or her signature in the designated place on the counterfoil of the ballot paper, as well as writing the number under which the voter is included in the voter list for the election precinct. The voter shall certify the receipt of the ballot paper by putting his or her signature on the voter list and on the designated place on the counterfoil of the ballot papers. After that, the member of the election commission shall detach the counterfoil from each ballot paper and hand the ballot paper over to the voter. The member of the election commission shall inform the voter of how many ballots he or she has received. The counterfoils of the ballot papers shall be stored by the member of the commission who handed over the ballot papers. Making any other marks on the ballot papers shall be prohibited.


4. A voter shall be allowed to stay in the premises for voting only for the time necessary for him or her to vote.


5. A voter shall fill out the ballot paper personally, in a booth for secret voting. The presence of other persons in the booth for secret voting, or photo and video recording during the filling out the ballot paper by the voter shall be prohibited. A voter who, due to his or her health disorder (due to disability, temporary health disorders or age) is unable to fill out the ballot paper independently, may, with the consent of the chair or other member of the precinct election commission, ask another voter for assistance, with the exception of a member of the election commission, a candidate for local council, a candidate for village, settlement or city mayor, a candidate’s agent, a party organization’s authorized person, or an official observer.


6. A voter shall have no right to hand his or her ballot papers over to other persons. It shall be prohibited to receive ballot papers from a person other than the member of the election commission in charge of issuing the ballot papers, as well as to encourage or force voters, by means of bribery, threats, or in any other manner, to hand their ballot papers over to other persons.


7. In the ballot paper for the elections to the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, an oblast, rayon, rayon in city, as well as city, settlement or village council (of a territorial community with 10,000 or more voters), a voter, who has determined the party organization for which he will vote, places the mark "plus" (+) or another, indicating his will, in the empty square opposite the name of this organization of the political party, and may enter the ordinal number of the candidate he supports in the square with a stencil for writing in the number of the candidate.

If a voter in the square with the stencil for writing in the number of a candidate made a mark not on the stencil, but from which it is possible to determine the genuine will of the voter, it is considered that the voter supports the candidate whose number is indicated.

If the entry (mark) in the square with the stencil for writing in the number of the candidate supported by the voter is made in the column of a party that was not supported by the voter, it is considered that such voter supports the entire regional list of candidates from the party organization without supporting an individual candidate.

8. On the ballot paper for the elections of members of city, village or settlement council (of a territorial community with up 10, 000 voters) the voter makes a mark "plus" (+) or other, indicating his will, in the square opposite the name of the candidate he/she supports


9. A voter may vote for only one party organization, one candidate for local council and one candidate for village, settlement or city mayor, or head of a village or settlement.


10. A voter shall personally cast his or her completed ballot papers into the ballot box.

A voter who, due to his or her health disorder (due to disability, temporary health disorders or age) is unable to deposit the ballot paper into the ballot box independently may, with the consent of the chair or other member of the precinct election commission, ask another person to do that in his or her presence, except that he or she may not ask for assistance from a member of the election commission, a candidate for local council, a candidate for village, settlement or city mayor, a candidate’s agent, a party organization’s authorized person, or an official observer.

11. If in the course of voting, a ballot box has been damaged, the chair and no less than three members of the election commission representing different nominating subjects shall seal the box in a way that shall exclude the possibility of further depositing in or taking out ballot papers. Such ballot box shall be kept in the premises for voting within plain sight of the election commission members and other persons who have the right to be present at the election precinct during the voting in accordance with the requirements of this Code, and shall not be used until the end of voting.

12. If a voter makes a mistake when filling out the ballot paper, he or she shall have the right to immediately address the election commission member who handed over the ballot paper to him or her with a written request to be issued another ballot paper. The member of the election commission shall issue another ballot paper to the voter in accordance with the procedure prescribed by Part three of this Article only in exchange for a spoiled ballot paper, which fact shall be noted in the voter list opposite to a voter’s name and certified by the signature of this member of the precinct election commission. A spoiled ballot paper shall be immediately invalidated as unused, and an act certifying this fact shall be drawn up. This act shall be signed by the two members of the precinct election commission who issued the ballot paper and by the voter who spoiled the ballot paper and shall be appended to the voter list. The invalidated ballot paper shall be kept by the member of the election commission who handed over the ballot paper until the start of vote counting. During vote counting, such ballot paper shall be considered as unused and shall be packed together with the counterfoil into the package with unused ballot papers. Repeated issuance of a ballot paper instead of a spoiled one shall not be allowed.

13. At 5 minutes to 20:00, the chair of the precinct election commission shall announce that the voting will end, and the election precinct will be closed at 20:00. Voters who have come to the election precinct before 20:00 for voting shall have the right to vote. To ensure the exercise of those voters’ right, one of the commission’s members shall, on instructions from the chair of the precinct election commission, approach the entrance to the premises for voting and invite all voters who have not voted yet to come into the premises for voting, and shall close the door. As soon as the last voter leaves the premises for voting, the premises shall be locked, and only the election commission members and persons entitled by this Code to be present at the election commission’s meeting shall be allowed to stay inside.

14. During the voting, it shall not be allowed to close the voting premises, to suspend the voting, to open ballot boxes, to count votes prior to the end of the time for voting established by this Code.

15. During the day of voting, a precinct election commission shall provide for sending the data on a number of voters, which were issued ballot papers at an election precinct, to all territorial election commissions in local elections, that are organized and held at this election precinct, pursuant to the procedure established by the Central Election Commission.

16. If the Central Election Commission decides to conduct an experiment or pilot project using innovative technologies in accordance with part one of Article 18 of this Code, the respective election commissions shall organize voting in such an experiment or pilot project simultaneously with the actions provided for in this article, according to the requirements provided by this Code.

Voters may participate in an experiment or pilot project using innovative technologies only if they vote simultaneously in the manner prescribed by this article.

Voters may not be forced to participate in an experiment or pilot project using innovative technologies.