Mobile polling stations bring voting closer to home

Mobile voting is available at 82 locations in 14 municipalities for Latvia’s 15th Saeima election, LSM reported. In Valmiera Municipality, six mobile locations are operating only on election day and during set hours.

Before dawn, staff from polling station 938 in Vecate packed a ballot box, documents and other voting equipment into a car and headed to Sēļu Manor, where a mobile voting location has replaced the permanent polling station used in previous elections.

Commission secretary Diāna Krastiņa said the Sēļi polling station was closed after fewer than 100 voters took part in previous elections. Voting at the manor is available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Staff then visit voters at home if they have received requests to do so.

The mobile location requires three staff members: one checks voters’ eligibility, another records their participation on paper and in the electronic register, and a third directs voters to the booth and helps them cast their ballots.

No queues had formed at Sēļu Manor, and staff waited about half an hour after the location opened for the first voter to arrive. Those who came said the next polling station would be much farther away.