Postal voting: How we will vote from home

The greatest possible parliamentary consensus for the institutionalization of postal voting in the Greek electoral system is a basic pursuit of the government. To this end, the leadership of the Ministry of Interior will open a circle of contacts with representatives of the parties in order to explain parameters of the plan and submit any objections and proposals.

The meetings will begin on December 11, after the return of Minister Nikis Kerameos from Paris, where she will chair this year’s Global Strategy Group of the OECD.

The aim is for the contacts with the parties and then the public electronic consultation to be completed by December and the relevant bill to be introduced for voting in the Parliament in the first fortnight of January.

The government is seeking a broad consensus, although for the bill to be passed and implemented in the upcoming European elections, it is sufficient for it to be passed by ND MPs, as it is required simple majority of 151 votes.

Most of the opposition parties welcomed the government’s announcements with caution, with the exception of the KKE, which is completely against it (it spoke of an “unacceptable and dangerous announcement”), the rest have a positive attitude at first.

With announcements and statements by their presidents, however, they asked for procedural guarantees to ensure the secrecy of the vote and safeguards that would protect the election result from possible falsification.

N. Kerameos: “An initiative that “deepens” Democracy”

The Minister of the Interior, Niki Kerameos, in her statement to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, states: “With the establishment, for the first time in the history of our country, of postal voting, all real/practical obstacles to participation in the elections are removed. With a simple, easy, absolutely immutable procedure, all Greeks who have the right to vote and live abroad, as well as all those who live in Greece and wish to, can now vote. Without moving. Without spending money. In the European elections of 2024, fifty years after the restoration of the Republic, there will be no obstacle – legal or real – for the participation of everyone, in Greece and abroad, in the electoral process. The postal vote was a widespread request of the Greeks in the diaspora, it meets the demands of Greek society, but also the demands of many political parties, as expressed a few months ago in the Parliament, in the debate on the vote of the expatriates. It is undoubtedly an initiative of our government that “deepens” our democracy, and I hope that we will send a horizontal message as a political system to facilitate participation in the European elections”.

The measure is widely applied internationally and Greece is one of the few countries in Europe that has not yet made use of this method. In Europe in particular, the process has been tested in 21 countries. With the exception of Iceland, where it only applies to domestic voters, in all the others it applies to those who live abroad. For those within the territory, postal voting has been established in 13 countries, of which seven are without restrictions and the other six are subject to conditions. In Ireland and Lithuania, for example, it only applies to armed men and those with health reasons, in Spain to those who are far from the polling place and in the Netherlands to those over 70.

The government’s proposal gives the possibility of postal voting for the European elections and national referendums to voters within the territory who choose it, without justification, while for voters abroad it will be the exclusive way of voting, as no polling stations will be set up.

How will we vote from home?

For both categories, the registration in postal vote electoral rolls which will be carried out through an electronic portal at gov.gr that will be opened after the passing of the bill. The voter, making use of the codes taxisnet, registers his application and fills in the address to which he wants the electoral material to be sent. The mobile phone he declares as well as his email are authenticated with a one-time password (OTP).

The deadline for submitting applications ends 40 days before the elections, that is for the European elections of June 9, 2024, when the measure will premiere, the applications should be submittedno later than April 28. Until that date the voter can change the delivery address or any other information, as well as cancel his application.

The envelope with the election material is sent no later than 20 days before the election by the Ministry of the Interior without charge to the recipient and is delivered only to him by registered letter or to someone he has authorized. The voter is informed by email about the sending of the file and with a link to see the sending process.

The electoral file will contain the postal vote return file, the voting file, the ballot paper, a form with instructions and a list of candidates and a declaration form.

All envelopes will have an embossed feature on the outside to prevent counterfeiting.

Where do we put a cross?

The ballot on the first page it will have all the parties that will participate in the elections and the selection will be made with cross on the can located next to the party’s name and emblem.

MEP candidates are selected on the second page where there is a large square that includes 42 numbered squares (from 1 to 42) that correspond to the total number of candidates for each party. Instead of a cross, the voter circles the number corresponding to each desired candidate (up to four choices) found on the instruction form.

In order for the vote to be counted, it is necessary for the voter to complete the affirmation that he has been registered in the special electoral lists for postal voting and cannot vote in person and that the completion of the ballot, and the selection of candidates, was done exclusively by him without the presence of another person.

What do we enclose in the envelope?

The voting envelope closed with the ballot inside, the responsible declaration and one proof of identity (photocopy of ID or passport or driver’s license) are enclosed in the return envelope and sent free of charge by post or partner courier company.

The files must reach the postal vote collection point by 5 pm on the eve of the election and are received by a special three-member committee.
The points for sending postal votes can be in public or even private buildings, which will be rented for this purpose (eg an exhibition space), will be guarded by the Police and will be monitored by closed circuit television.

Clearing of electoral rolls

The postal vote is one of a total of four parts of the interior ministry’s bill, which will be entitled “Election of MEPs, Facilitation of Electoral Votes, Clearing of Electoral Rolls and Other Provisions”. The other three parts concern the clearing of electoral rolls, the facilitation of accessibility to polling stations (and other provisions for the disabled) and provisions for the election of MEPs.

The liquidation of the electoral rolls was deemed necessary as they are registered people who died abroad and the Greek censuses were not updated. Because of this, there are 555,000 more registered Greeks over the age of 75 than in the census, increasing the abstinence rate.

The bill provides that those who were born before January 1, 1944 and have not submitted a tax return in the current tax year or have not been declared as connected persons, at the end of June 2024 are placed in a special category “to be deleted” from the electoral rolls.

Those of them who are still alive and wish to remove the deletion will be able to request it by making a statement to the municipality, to a KEP or to a consulate or online until October 31, 2024.

In order to facilitate accessibility to polling stations, it is planned to create a register of polling stations and polling stations, in which there will be a complete mapping of polling centers that are accessible for people with special needs, where voters, upon their request, will be able to vote.

In addition, the televised messages of the parties and the interviews of the political leaders will be compulsorily broadcast with sign language interpretation.

Finally, the provisions for the election of MEPs provide, among other things, that the declaration of the combinations must be done through the electronic candidate portal, the obstacle for the sitting MPs returns, the combinations should consist of 42 candidates, while the parabola is consolidated of the combination and the candidates’ fee and is set at 20,000 euros, which is returned to the combination if it collects at least 1.5%.