Art. 213a. (New – SG 88/20) (1) (Amend. - SG 104/22) The technical devices for machine voting are state property, which is acquired and managed by the Central Election Commission. The Central Election Commission shall purchase technical devices for machine voting or shall commission the manufacture of such devices, as well as shall acquire rights to software products or shall commission the development of software products in such a way so as the state have rights to their use and modification in view of the purpose for which these are acquired.

(2) (Amend. - SG 15/22, in force from 22.02.2022) The Ministry of e-government, together with the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization and the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology shall certify the compliance of the delivered type of technical device for machine voting with the requirements of Art. 213, Para. 3 and the requirements of the technical specification, according to the methodology, approved by the Minister of e-government, the Chairman of the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology and the Chairman of the Management Board of the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization.

(3) (New - SG 36/21, in force from 01.05.2021) In the process of certification under Para. 2 may also participate representatives of the parties, coalitions and initiative committees registered for participation in the elections, of Bulgarian non-governmental organizations that have registered observers for the respective type of election, and of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences by providing the persons with access to the devices, documentation and source code in accordance with the procedure determined by the Central Election Commission.

(4) (Prev. para. 3, amend. - SG 36/21, in force from 01.05.2021) The certification under Para. 2 shall be carried out within 30 working days, as of the date of submission by the Central Election Commission of the technical devices for machine voting.

(5) (New - SG 36/21, in force from 01.05.2021, amend. and suppl. - SG 104/22) When during the certification under Para. 2, a discrepancy of the machine voting devices with the principles under Art. 3 is found out, the Central Election Commission shall conduct the respective election only with paper ballots.