Voting machine discrepancies: Protocols in 14 polling stations show missing votes
In Haskovo, Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo and Vidin, first-round machine protocols show fewer votes than signatures. Election commissions say the outcome is unaffected.
Graphic: TERRA WORLD NEWS (own graphic based on the sources listed)
After the first round of the presidential election, machine protocols in 14 polling stations in four provinces — Haskovo, Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo and Vidin — show fewer votes than the number of signatures and control receipts. In Haskovo province, seven of 350 stations using machine voting have discrepancies: one vote is missing in five and two votes in two. The missing votes do not appear in the machine protocols. The problem surfaced when election materials were handed in and the number of signatures did not match the machine count.
"This will in no way affect the results," said Ina Veskova, chair of the Haskovo regional election commission. In Veliko Tarnovo, the discrepancy concerns three stations in the city, where the voter lists each have one extra signature. Commission chair Hristo Denev said the stations were accepted because the controls had worked, and that of more than 44,000 votes only three went unrecorded, one from each of three machines.
Analysis is continuing, and according to Denev the machine manufacturer Siela Norma is likely to explain what happened. Election officials hope the issue will be cleared up before Sunday's Nov. 1 runoff, in which Iliana Yotova and Andrey Gyurov are competing for the presidency.