Pre-poll voting procedure and documents

1. Under the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission, for the purposes of implementing the electronic marking of voters who voted in pre-poll voting, a pre-poll voting form shall be used. A pre-poll voting form shall be a document which an electoral committee or the head of a body in charge of a declared polling place (or a person authorised by them) prints out from the information system of the Central Electoral Commission for voters voting on other than polling day. A pre-poll voting form shall be obligatory when voting in pre-poll voting. This form shall consist of three parts. The first part shall contain information about each voter and the election documents issued to them. After the vote, the said part shall be stored at the electoral committee. The second part shall constitute a receipt confirming the acceptance of a filled-in covering envelope. The receipt shall be issued to the voter on the presentation of the covering envelope, which is sealed after the vote has been cast. The third part shall be a poll card handed to the voter together with the election documents; when voting, the voter shall put the said poll card into the covering envelope. The poll card shall specify the voter’s full name; the name and number of the polling district on whose electoral roll the voter has been entered; the address and number of the constituency or municipality; the address of the polling station; and the voter’s successive number on the electoral roll of the polling district.

2. Members of an electoral committee who are appointed to work at pre-poll voting by the chair of that committee shall issue election documents to a voter under the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission. Together with the ballot paper(s), the voter shall be issued with voting envelopes. A member of the polling district electoral committee shall fill in the covering envelope with an address of the polling district electoral committee indicated in the poll card.

3. While voting in pre-poll voting, voters shall:
1) mark their vote on the ballot paper(s);
2) put the marked ballot paper(s) into the ballot paper envelope;
3) seal the ballot paper envelope;
4) put the ballot paper envelope and with the poll card into the covering envelope;
5) seal the covering envelope.

4. Each voter shall hand the sealed covering envelope containing the poll card and the ballot paper envelope with the ballot paper(s) inside to the electoral committee member who issued them with the election documents. After receiving the envelope handed in by the voter, the said committee member shall stamp the envelope with a special mark in the voter’s presence and give the voter a receipt confirming the acceptance of the envelope.

5. The electoral committee member who has issued the election documents shall indicate in the electronic electoral roll that the voter has voted and specify the number of the special mark stamped on the envelope.

6. The steps referred to in paragraphs (3) and (4) shall be carried out by the voters themselves. Conditions must be created for voters with disabilities to make use of ancillary means and technologies when voting. If any voters are unable to carry out the steps referred to in paragraphs (3) and (4) themselves, because of their disability, these steps shall, at their request, be carried out by a person of their choice. This person must, in the presence of the voter, mark the ballot-paper(s) according to their instructions and carry out the steps referred to in paragraphs (3) and (4). The person chosen by the voter must preserve the secrecy of vote of the voter who has engaged that person.

7. Election observers and electoral committee members shall be prohibited to carry out the steps referred to in paragraphs (3) and (4) on behalf of voters, from accepting unsealed covering envelopes from voters and from issuing election documents to voters in the places and to persons other than those provided for in this Code. Voters shall be prohibited to take ballot papers and voting envelopes from the polling places or to hand them over to other persons.

8. The Central Electoral Commission shall use the services of postal service providers for the transfer to the voters’ constituencies of the filled-in voting envelopes of voters who have voted in pre-poll voting in other constituencies.

9. The chair of the constituency electoral committee or of the municipal electoral committee shall, under the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission, hand over to the postal service providers the voting envelopes filled in by the voters at a declared polling place.

10. The electoral committees in charge of organising the poll shall include the electoral rolls of voters who have voted in pre-poll voting and the unused ballot papers into the accounting and store them. After the elections, the said electoral committees shall transfer the said registers and unused ballot papers accompanied by other election documents to the appropriate constituency electoral committee, municipal electoral committee, or the Central Electoral Commission.