The process ends on Saturday at 5 pm – Extension of time if necessary
They are being sorted at a feverish pace postal votes at the Peristeri exhibition center that arrive at the site in postal bags by courier employees.
The bags are received by 15 employees, who check the authenticity of the envelopes, measure them and mark them with authenticity tape.
To date, 168,500 envelopes with postal votes have been received. The process ends on Saturday at 5 pm, while an extension will be given if deemed necessary.
The postal vote collection area, inside and outside the building is kept discreetly by men and women of the Hellenic Police, while at the same time the areas where the ballot boxes are located are monitored by closed circuit television 24 hours a day.
On Sunday, on the day of the elections at 06:00 in the morning the collection committees deliver the ballots to the sorting committees established for each electoral division and a delivery-receipt protocol is signed between them.
The general registrar Christos Katsianis and his assistant Yiannis Pontikis toured the APE-MPE in the area and expressed their optimism that the final number of postal votes can exceed the initial estimates and reach 180,000-190,000 out of a total of 202,000 registered.
Postal voters have been distributed geographically to 237 electoral divisions, which in turn have been distributed to 12 postal vote collection committees.
After completing their work, the clerks hand over the files to the appropriate committee, each of which consists of three judicial officers.
They, in turn, scan each envelope and drop it into the special custody box, which is separate for each polling station. By scanning, both the sender and the Ministry of the Interior are automatically informed by SMS or e-mail that their envelope has just been received, which in this way knows in real time the exact number of arrivals.
The files must be received by each collection committee on the eve of the elections, specifically by 17:00 on Saturday. The deadline can be extended up to six hours if it is established that the registration has not been completed for the files, which were received on time.
Voters whose envelope did not arrive at the exhibition center building in time, as well as those who registered but did not send the envelope, will be informed by text on Saturday evening that they can vote in person at the polling station where they belong, after 11: 00 in the morning.
The postal vote collection area, inside and outside the building, is discretely guarded by men and women of the Hellenic Police, while at the same time the areas where the ballot boxes are located are monitored by closed circuit television around the clock.
On Sunday, the day of the elections, at 6:00 a.m. the collection committees deliver the ballots to the sorting committees established for each electoral division and a delivery-receipt protocol is signed between them.
During the period when the attendance of voters will be held at the polling stations of the whole country, i.e. from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., the selection committees will open the ballot box of the electoral division assigned to them, count the envelopes and then open to check if the necessary accompanying documents are present, i.e. the copy of the identity card and the completed declaration form. If the completeness of the electoral file is established, then the closed file containing the ballot is thrown into the final ballot box. If any accompanying document is missing, the ballot remains outside the ballot box and is recorded as invalid.
At 19:00, when the voting ends, the polls are opened and the sorting of the votes begins, as will happen simultaneously in every electoral district of the territory.
Source: Skai
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have been an author at News Bulletin 247 for the past 2 years. I mostly cover politics news. I am a highly experienced and respected journalist. I have won numerous awards for my work.
