The Election Authority has been working all weekend to resolve the glitch in early voting. Now there’s a new update on how many voters may still be affected—and what they need to do to ensure their vote counts.
Last week, serious errors were discovered in the registration of early votes. At that time, the Election Authority stated that approximately 4,000 voters might be affected. Following this weekend’s review, the situation looks better—but the problem has not been resolved.
Now there are at most 500 voters left who Electoral authority cannot be identified. Their early votes will likely not be counted. The agency also notes that the number may decrease as the analysis continues.
Votes were assigned to the wrong voters
The error occurred when certain vote-receiving machines began accepting the next vote before the previous vote had been processed. As a result, some votes were assigned another voter’s voter registration number and were therefore recorded incorrectly.
– Our analysis shows that there are at most 500 voters who will likely not be able to be identified. That number may decrease. This is, of course, a very serious matter and should not be allowed to happen.
That's according to the Secretary General of the Election Authority Anna Nyqvist. The agency will now publish a list of the polling places and times at which the votes in question were cast. Affected voters will then have the opportunity to vote again on Election Day.
The agency does not know who has been affected
The problem is that the Election Authority cannot contact the people concerned. The authority simply does not know who they are. Anyone who has voted early must therefore check for themselves whether their location and time are included on the upcoming list.
– We won't be able to contact the affected voters because we don't know who they are.
If the location and time are listed, voters are asked to go to their regular polling place and vote again on Election Day. For voters who miss this information, there is still a risk that their early vote will not be counted.
