The editorial staff of the wPolityce.pl portal receives further information on the problems that may arise from the issuance of certificates allowing voting at any polling station. “If a dishonest citizen makes 100 identical copies of his certificate, he will be able to vote in 101 different polling stations. Committee members may not be able to effectively verify the originality of such a certificate,” noted a person working in one of the election committees on October 15.
Certificate of right to vote anywhere
The editorial staff of the wPolityce.pl portal receives new information about the parliamentary elections. One of the members of the election committee provided information about the possibility of voting based on a certificate at each polling station.
If a voter collects a certificate at a polling station that allows him to vote, he will be removed from the voters’ list of his place of residence.
– appoints a member of the election committee.
On election day, a citizen with such a certificate reports to each polling station, where the electoral commission verifies his certificate and, for example, his identity card. The committee then adds the voter’s personal details to the electoral list and hands over the ballot papers. In addition, the electoral commission adopts such a certificate, which becomes an appendix to the voters’ list of a particular polling station.
– reminds.
This fact is essentially simple and common knowledge to anyone who has ever worked in an election commission in recent years. But what could be the problem?
Is it possible to effectively verify a voter?
If a dishonest citizen makes 100 identical copies of his certificate, he will be able to vote in 101 different polling stations. Committee members may not be able to effectively verify the originality of such a certificate. Even if they become suspicious and call the personal registration register to verify the voter, they receive the answer that yes, this citizen can vote based on the certificate.
– indicates the informant.
Although the certificates feature a small hologram, as one of our sources notes, a committee member is not allowed to point out its absence or a sticker that imitates it.
According to a member of the Electoral Commission, one can even imagine a situation where a person with a non-existent PESEL number, with forged documents, such as an identity card or the aforementioned certificate, could participate in elections organized in this way.
After the election, such certificates are placed with the electoral rolls, packed in a paper bag or cardboard box and then sealed. The National Electoral Commission does not scan or record received certificates in an electronic version. Therefore, it seems that there is only one way to verify whether there is fraud in the electoral system: opening the bags, taking out the certificates and analyzing their originality.
– emphasizes a person who works in one of the election commissions.
Our informant indicates that this type of verification is very difficult or even impossible.
Furthermore, from my telephone conversation with the National Electoral Commission, it appears that the National Electoral Commission has no knowledge of the total number of such certificates issued by individual agencies in the country.
— reports one of the members of the electoral commission.
The National Electoral Commission only published the number of votes cast using such certificates. We cannot therefore compare the number of certificates entered into the electoral system by officials with the votes cast in the form of a certificate that allows voting at any polling station.
– points out and notes that twice as many voters voted by certificate than in the previous elections, namely less than 600,000.
“The current electoral system is leaky.”
The electoral commission employee then outlines hypothetical problems that could be caused by the current electoral system: for example, a situation where hundreds of people have 100 copies of certificates and ‘travel’ around different buildings. This could lead not only to chaos and confusion, but also to even deeper conflicts between Poles.
In summary: the current electoral system is leaky and enables election fraud, as well as the inability of the National Electoral Commission to detect this effectively.
– underlined.
According to our informant, it is necessary to make a correction in the current system that will allow accurate, 100% verification of voters who vote outside their place of residence, and at the same time allow them to vote in any premises, and finally – it will effectively prevent potential fraudsters from voting on many different committees.
A simple solution is to eliminate paper certificates in the entire election process, while the Electoral Commission currently has no idea how many such documents have been issued by individual agencies, and introduce an electronic certificate in the mObywatel application.
– indicates.
For example, after casting a vote outside the place of residence using an electronic certificate in the mObywatel application, the Commission number and a unique code that authorizes and blocks the possibility of casting votes in subsequent polling stations would be scanned.
– to explain.
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Source: wPolityce