Summary
Provided they allowed for consistency with other international obligations, safeguards may be used to diminish the potential for duplicate voting.
Obligations
Election Parts
Issues
Quotes
- In relation to any election or referendum, a voter shall be prevented from inserting more than one ballot into the electronic ballot box. A voter shall be authorized to vote only if it has been established that his/her ballot has not yet been inserted into the ballot box.
- The e-voting system shall prevent any voter from casting a vote by more than one voting channel.
- Multiple voting should be prevented effectively without, however, violating the principle of the secrecy of the vote.
- It is particularly important, where remote e-voting takes place while polling stations are open, that the system shall be so designed that it prevents any voter from voting more than once.
- Ensuring that ballot papers, ballot boxes and all equipment used at the polling station are secure and that no possibility for fraud exists.
- There must be an adequate system for controlling that nobody can give multiple votes. This is normally done by crossing out in the electoral rolls, by stamping identity cards or by giving a stamp on a hand, if rolls are not available.
- The ballot should be easy to fill out for the voter, and safeguarded, by e.g. watermarks, to avoid duplication.
- The tear-off part of the ballot should not bear any serial number, while the counterfoil might have these numbers for control purposes.
- Multiple voting – where a voter casts more ballots than permitted – should be prohibited by law. Safeguards to prevent a person from voting again in the same or another polling station should be put in place. Examples of such safeguards include: marking the voter register to indicate an elector has voted, requiring the voter to sign the register, and marking a voter’s finger with ink.
- In addition, States should take the necessary policy and institutional steps to ensure the progressive achievement and consolidation of democratic goals, including through the establishment of a neutral, impartial or balanced mechanism for the management of elections. In so doing, they should, among other matters: ...Ensure the integrity of the ballot through appropriate measures to prevent multiple voting or voting by those not entitled thereto.
- In order to safeguard the ballot, each ballot should bear an official stamp specific to the polling station and/or the signature of an authorized person/s in the polling station.
- The names and number of requesting voters who have used or are using the special provisions should be recorded in polling-station and other protocols in order to avoid double voting…
- In order to safeguard the ballot, in many countries ballot papers bear an official stamp specific to the polling station and/or the signature of authorised polling station officials. Some electoral laws contain clear and detailed provisions on that subject. According to the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters, the signing and stamping of ballot papers should not take place at the point at which the ballot is presented to the voter because, theoretically, the stamp or the signature might mark the ballot in such a way that the voter could be identified later during the count. (CDL-AD(2002)023rev, para. 34). Even more important is that the ballots are not stamped by a member of the polling station commission after the voter has made his/her choice.
- Appropriate methods should be put in place to prevent multiple voting.
- The legal framework must address a myriad of issues to ensure a genuine opportunity to exercise the right to vote on the basis of equal and universal suffrage. These issues concern conditions outside the polling sites, as well as inside it, before, during and after voting takes place. The provisions must ensure, among other things, that: ...Security protocols are provided that guarantee voting integrity, including preventing ballot box stuffing and irregularities and fraud in electronic voting.
- There must be a process to clearly identify voters eligible to use alternative voting provisions and to prevent double voting.
- A number of other safeguards may also be built into voting systems to help protect the security and secrecy of ballots, for example: Stamping ballots with an official stamp specific to the polling station when they are given to voters or before they are placed in the ballots box; Having one or more polling-station officials sign the back of the blank ballot when it is given to the voter; Use of numbered ballot stubs to monitor the number of votes in a ballot box; Use of a stamp rather than a pen to mark ballots; Use of heavy paper for ballots so that marks cannot be seen through the back of the ballot paper; Printing ballots with watermarks or other devices to make them harder to counterfeit.”