The Public Council to Bulgaria's Central Election Commission (CIK) has asked the commission to scrap the rule that control receipts from machine voting must carry a stamp. It says CIK should review whether the stamp is needed and act to drop the rule.
At a meeting on 20 October, CIK changed its instructions to precinct election commissions (SIK) for the presidential and vice-presidential elections. The commissions will have to stamp receipts from machine voting.
The council believes the extra step does not make the vote safer. In its words, it could slow voting, make work harder for SIK and needlessly complicate the election process.
A control receipt is not like a paper ballot, the council explains, because the voting device generates and prints it. The stamp rule was carried over from paper to machine voting, but it adds no security. Machines already have other checks and protections: special paper with extra security features from the Bulgarian National Bank's printing works, a QR code, a hash code, the device number and more. These are meant to guarantee that a vote is genuine and accounted for.
The council believes the stamp is of doubtful use, while there is a real chance it could break the secrecy of the vote. At earlier elections, it says, the paper and the font size meant a marked vote could become visible to SIK members when they applied the stamp.
The council also points to the risk that the receipt will be unfolded. It says this step, added at the last minute, needlessly opens the way to breaking the secrecy of the vote.