On Friday evening, the voting machines will be transported to the various municipalities in the country, said the Deputy Chairperson of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Rositsa Mateva to journalists during a demonstration of a machine in the warehouse where the devices are stored, BTA reports. According to her, all of them have been sealed after maintenance and are expected to be in the voting stations on Saturday. The event was also attended by the Acting Minister of Electronic Governance Georgi Sharkov.
Each of the machines is being checked by civil servants provided by the Ministry of Electronic Governance (MEG). Now all the machines will be checked, because for the first time we have provided enough civil servants, said Mateva in response to a question about why about 30% of the voting machines have been checked so far. According to her, after the check, the machines are verified, put in a suitcase, palletized and transported. So far, no problems have been found with the machines, each machine has certified software.
On Saturday, the machines will be tested in advance to see if they work, a diagnostic report will be printed. If any of the machines do not work on Saturday, a new attempt will be made to start them on Sunday, she said. Mateva reminded that the machine must be constantly plugged into the power grid.
Only when there is some reason why the machine does not work and the technician of “Siela Norma“ cannot fix it, then the regional election commission can decide to suspend machine voting. While the equipment is being checked, voting with paper ballots continues. When the decision is made by the district commission, voting continues only with paper ballots, said Mateva.
The maintenance of the machines is the responsibility of the owner, but every time, in every public procurement that we announce for machine voting activities related to specific elections, the first activity that the winner of the public procurement performs is maintenance, Mateva explained.
The acting Minister of Electronic Governance Georgi Sharkov said that first the machines will be transported to more remote regions in the country. According to him, the activities are according to plan, an organization has been created for the installation of the machines, employees work in three shifts. Each of the machines is checked to see if the original code is installed, and then the machine is packed and a seal is placed, which is recorded in a special protocol. It is placed in the compartment where the flash drives are. According to Sharkov, there is no risk of hacker attacks on the machines and on the video surveillance traffic. In the previous elections, about 98.5% of the sections broadcast live, and after the devices were handed over and the recordings were downloaded, the coverage was 99.5%, he pointed out.
The seal must be opened only after the end of election day, so that the flash drives can be removed from the section election commission, Mateva explained.
The technical support of the video surveillance is the responsibility of “Information Services“ and we have information from them that all the devices have been tested and are working, she said. In settlements where there is a problem with the internet connection, the devices are recording, and where there is no real-time broadcast, the recording will be downloaded from them. Mateva reminded that the entire process of counting votes, filling out the protocol, packing the papers and putting them in the bags must be recorded.
During the demonstration, which was also attended by authorized representatives of coalitions registered to participate in the elections, a conflict arose. Authorized representatives of GERB-SDF opened part of the machine with a screwdriver. According to them, there is a possibility of placing other devices in the machines, the battery would not last more than 30 minutes, their software is old, with an expiration date in 2025.
Representative of the coalition "Continuing the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" Bozhidar Bozhanov said that he does not see a problem with the machines.
Mateva addressed those claiming problems with the machines, saying that their actions were scripted, as well as that they were questioning the activities of the independent state election management body, as well as the state experts who checked the machines. You are questioning the entire election process absolutely purposefully, because you are suggesting that someone could do something with the machines, Mateva added.
Minister Sharkov pointed out that after the software is installed in the machine, it is sealed, and that even if other flash drives are inserted into the machine, it will not work. The software is encrypted, each machine is unlocked with special cards for it and there is no way to manipulate anything after the sealing, he added. According to him, the machines are transported to the polling stations with security and are guarded until the beginning of election day.