The Home Secretary announced this Wednesday that in the next European elections, the first with dematerialized voter lists, it will be possible to vote in 13,500 polling stations, involving more than 67 thousand people throughout the country.
At the parliamentary hearing, at his request to explain the preparation of the electoral acts in 2024, José Luis Carneiro focused mainly on the European elections of June 9, for which the parliament approved in November an exceptional regime to try to reduce the number of abstentions in the elections that will occur in Portugal during the holidays.
“Voters will be able to vote in advance or on the road at any polling station in the country or abroad,” the minister explained, in a manner that does not require prior registration.
For this purpose, the voter lists have been dematerialized and will be available on approximately 29,000 computers purchased for this purpose, as well as on 13,500 planned polling stations (more than 6,500 polling stations), which should bring together 67,000 polling station members.
According to the minister, Internet network coverage has already been tested in 98.6% of the assessed settlements, while fiber optic network coverage has yet to be provided in 1.5% of settlements.
Polling officers will undergo special training for this purpose, and a large test will take place on June 1.
According to the government, dematerialized pads will avoid paper lists, guarantee the confidentiality of voter data – voters can only be polled upon presentation of an identification document (unknowns can only vote at the table where they usually belong) – and that no one will be able to vote more than once , since votes will be synchronized in real time at different polling stations.
A centralized database of these dematerialized pads and “software” components will be hosted on the National Homeland Security Network infrastructure, and once voted on, the National Mint Institute will be responsible for storing the information.
“There is a guarantee of the security of voter data and votes,” assured José Luis Carneiro.
In the event of a computer failure, there is a telephone contingency plan that can be accessed by poll workers.
The Home Secretary also emphasized the importance of the Voter Portal, where you can find out not only the nearest polling place, but also the average waiting time.
As for the total cost of the two elections, the government estimates it at 48 million euros in the case of the European elections and 24 million euros in the case of early legislative elections on March 10.
In addition to concerns about the security and preparation of party delegates for the European elections, the SDP and Chega questioned what was being done to avoid the problems recorded with emigrant votes in the last legislative elections and which led to the Constitutional Court annulling and depriving votes will be repeated in the European circle in 2022.
José Luis Carneiro argued that there would be a change that could be made in a simple way (but this will no longer happen as Parliament will be dissolved on January 15): instead of sending voting forms to all Portuguese citizens living abroad, it is only to those who have expressed desire to vote by mail.
“This will save many thousands of ballots that are never returned and become useless. And since they will be addressed only to those who have expressed this desire, the law can do without the requirement to provide a copy of the citizen,” the minister said in defense.
The exceptional regime for the next European elections was introduced after, under Portuguese opposition, the Swedish presidency of the Council of the European Union announced that the next European elections would be held from June 6 to 9, 2024 – in Portugal on Sunday, June 9. .
June 10th is the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities. And June 13 is a public holiday in several municipalities, including Lisbon.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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