Advice to voters on voting day in united territorial communities

On October 29, Ukraine, including Chernihiv Oblast, will hold the first local elections in united territorial communities. So, the head of programs of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights Kateryna Dankova talks about the basic rights of voters who will come to their polling stations on voting day.

Voting day and time

A voter can come to the polling station and vote from 8 am to 8 pm. But remember that on the night of October 28 to 29, Ukraine will switch to winter time. Therefore, do not forget to set your clocks back one hour the day before (on Saturday evening).

The right to vote

The right to vote in the local elections on Sunday, October 29, will be exercised by voters who are 18 years old on voting day, have legal capacity, and are included in the updated voter list at the polling station where they will vote.

ATTENTION! On voting day, October 29, 2017, no one can be included in or excluded from the voter list.

Documents that a voter must have with him/her

A voter who is on the list, when going to the polling station, must take with him/her his/her passport (this can be a passport-book or a passport in the form of an ID card), which is the main document according to which he/she must be given ballots for voting at the polling station.

Another document that gives the right to vote in these elections is a temporary certificate of a citizen of Ukraine. But this applies only to those voters who have recently been admitted to Ukrainian citizenship and have not had time to issue a passport.

Any other document – ​​military ID, foreign or diplomatic passport, ID of a People’s Deputy of Ukraine, ID of a combatant, Chernobyl ID and other documents – do not give the PEC members the right to issue ballots to voters upon presentation, even if such voters are on the voter list at the polling station.

ATTENTION! PEC members do not have the authority to check whether the passport provided by the voter is valid, to argue about the lack of a photo of the appropriate age, etc. This falls within the authority of the State Migration Service and does not apply to voting day.

Issuance of ballots

At the polling station, PEC members will work in pairs to issue ballots. One member of the commission, provided that the voter presents one of the documents specified above and that the voter is on the voter list at the relevant polling station, provides the voter with a list of voters for signature. The second member of the PEC writes his/her last name and signs in the designated place on the ballot control slips, and places the number under which the voter is included in the voter list at the polling station in the designated place on these slips.

In turn, the voter signs the voter list upon receipt of the ballots, as well as in the designated place on the control slip of each ballot. After that, the member of the election commission separates the control slip from each of the ballots issued to the voter, and issues such ballots to the voter for voting. At the same time, the member of the election commission informs the voter how many ballots he/she received.

ATTENTION! During such issuance, it is prohibited to make any other marks on the ballots.

How many ballots are issued

In these local elections, each voter will receive two ballots: one for the election of deputies of the village, settlement or city council (depending on where the voters vote), and the second for the election of the village, settlement or city mayor.

Voting procedure

When the voter receives his ballots, he enters the booth for secret voting and puts a “+” mark or another one in front of the empty square with the name of the party, candidate for deputy of the relevant council, candidate for city/settlement/village mayor, which certifies his will. That is, he personally fills out these ballots.

If a voter has physical disabilities and is unable to fill out and drop the ballots into the box on his own, then at his request, with the knowledge of the PEC chairman, only another voter who is at the polling station at that time can help him do this.

ATTENTION! The presence of other persons in the booth for secret voting is strictly prohibited: PEC members, TECs, candidates, proxies, official observers, people’s deputies, correspondents, unless this concerns voting for themselves as voters.

Marking the choice on the ballot

There should be only one mark on each ballot for each type of local election. If there are two or more, then such a ballot will be declared invalid in the future.

The columns “I do not support any political party/candidate for the position of city/village mayor” will not be in the ballots for this year’s local elections in the ATC.

Therefore, a voter who came to the polling station with the desire to vote “against all” must still make his choice in favor of one of the candidates or parties on the ballots, as such is the requirement of the Law. If he does not put any mark, then, as in the case of several marks, such a ballot will be invalid.

The right to replace the ballot

The voter who will vote at the polling station is given the right to make a mistake. That is, if a voter voted for the wrong candidate/party before the ballots were put into the ballot box, he has the right to replace the spoiled ballot. To do this, he must:

1) immediately contact the PEC members who issued him the ballots and inform him of his mistake;

2) return this “wrong” ballot;

3) write a written application for the issuance of another ballot from the same type of local elections from which the ballot was spoiled.

The PEC member must take the spoiled ballot, cancel it by tearing off the lower right corner, draw up an appropriate act and, following a similar procedure specified above, issue the voter another ballot.

ATTENTION Members of the precinct election commission issue another ballot to a voter only once, only in exchange for a spoiled one and only from the corresponding type of local elections where an error was made. If it so happens that the voter discovered his mistake after throwing the ballots into the ballot box and demands to be issued new ballots, then the members of the PEC are not entitled to issue new ballots to such a voter.

We remind you that the specialists of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights (CHPCHR) offer free legal advice on election issues to participants in the election process: voters, members of election commissions, candidates.

You can get advice in several ways:

– by e-mail, by writing your question to the organization’s e-mail: ;

– through the organization’s website, writing your question in the appropriate form;

– writing your question in a message on the organization’s page at ;

– by phone at the numbers: (0462) 612-532, (063) 158-32-46;

– by visiting the public reception of the ChGKZPL in Chernihiv at the address: 57 Honcha Street. In this case, it is advisable to call the above numbers in advance and notify them of your visit.

The Free and Fair Local Elections Project is being implemented in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Rivne, Volyn, Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia and

Chernihiv

regions with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).