site.btaNo New Voting Machines for Local Elections, Existing Ones Will Be Used - Central Election Commission

No new voting machines will be delivered for the local elections, but the already existing 12,837 devices will be used, said the Central Election Commission (CEC) Chair Kamelia Neykova here during a Monday hearing in Parliament about the reliability of the voting machines. ]

She noted that all voting machines are stored in a warehouse, which is private, as no State-owned warehouse has been provided by the Council of Ministers.

Neykova explained that in case a voting machine experiences a problem on election day, it is not replaced, but voters start voting with paper ballots.

The voting software, after the procedure of trusted source code creation in a secure environment, provided by the Ministry of e-Government, is signed with keys that are only in CEC's possession, under a specific procedure, and are not provided to outsiders, the Commission's Chair. 

She added that access to the source code and documentation for the machine voting system is granted to representatives of parties and coalitions registered to participate in the elections. 

Neykova stressed the need to regulate the special protection and status of the machine voting devices, just like the status of paper ballots is regulated. 

Kamelia Neykova also commented that a number of checks and tests are being carried out on the security of machine voting. Also, the Ministry of Interior and the State Agency for National Security are checking all persons who have access to the warehouse where the voting machines are stored and who will work on their preparation and delivery to the Election Commission.