Summary
Safeguards should be in place to ensure the accuracy of the vote, no matter the form of balloting or counting used (manual, mechanical, or electronic).
Obligations
Election Parts
Criteria
Quotes
- [States should] ensure transparency of the electoral process, particularly in: 8.2.3. the conduct of the ballot: it is advisable to ensure that polling stations are appropriately designed, that transparent ballot boxes are used, that voting booths are available, that counting takes place in public and that distance voting is well regulated.
- ...[T]he legal framework should provide safeguards where technology is used to count ballots.
- [C]ounting should preferably take place in polling stations.
- The legal framework… should also provide safeguards where technology is used and ballots are counted other than manually.
- [A]t least two criteria should be used to assess the accuracy of the outcome of the ballot: the number of votes cast and the number of voting slips placed in the ballot box; viii. voting slips must not be tampered with or marked in any way by polling station officials; ix. unused and invalid voting slips must never leave the polling station; x. polling stations must include representatives of a number of parties, and the presence of observers appointed by the latter or by other groups that have taken a stand on the issue put to the vote must be permitted during voting and counting.
- [V]oting slips must not be tampered with or marked in any way by polling station officials.
- The votes should preferably be counted at the polling stations themselves, rather than in special centres. The polling station staff are perfectly capable of performing this task, and this arrangement obviates the need to transport the ballot boxes and accompanying documents, thus reducing the risk of substitution.
- [U]nused and invalid voting slips must never leave the polling station.