Voter in Kaunata Precinct Says Her Empty Envelope Is Missing From Election Results
A voter named Madara in Kaunata parish, Rēzekne municipality, says she cast an empty envelope in the 15th Saeima election, but it does not appear in the precinct results. The Central Election Commission sees no violation at the precinct.
A resident of Kaunata parish in Latvia's Rēzekne municipality, identified as Madara, says she has found a discrepancy in the precinct-level results of the 15th Saeima election. In her view, the empty ballot envelope she cast is not reflected in the figures. The Saeima is Latvia's parliament, and voters elect it by choosing candidate lists. The case was reported by the TV3 programme "Bez Tabu".
How the vote went
Madara told the programme that she found no list she wanted to vote for, so she expressed her choice by dropping an empty voting envelope into the ballot box. She said she had no favourites.
Later she looked at the results for the Kaunata precinct and noticed that the number of envelopes matched the total number of votes cast for parties. That means the results show no empty envelope. She says her mother-in-law voted the same way, so the family contacted the Central Election Commission (CVK) to ask why these votes were not shown.
The commissions' explanation
CVK's replies to the family stated that no violation took place at the Kaunata precinct. CVK secretary Ritvars Eglājs explained that a voter may vote without placing any ballot paper in the envelope. Such a vote is counted among valid envelopes, as a valid envelope without a valid ballot paper. He also said that such an error could not have occurred.
The chair of the Rēzekne municipality election commission stressed that the commission at the precinct is an experienced one and that he sees no need to question its competence. At the same time, he acknowledged that human error cannot be ruled out, since commission members get tired. Still, if an envelope was empty, it is recorded as empty in the election log and in the system.
