Bulgaria's innovation ministry will publicly draw the numbers of voting machines due for compliance checks ahead of the presidential election on October 25, 2026, the ministry said.

The numbers will be picked at random in the presence of innovation minister Ivan Vasilev. Invited to the draw are the Central Election Commission, its public council, the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization, the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology, parties with seats in parliament, parties registered for the presidential and vice-presidential election, and initiative committees.

Days ago, innovation minister Ivan Vasilev, acting metrology institute head Paun Ilchev and standardization institute board chair Ivelin Burov signed off on an updated method for checking the machines. It sets out how officials will check whether the voting machines delivered meet the requirements of the Electoral Code and the technical specifications.

The ministry says the public draw is meant to keep every stage of the check open, since that builds public trust in the election.