Latvia’s election chief offers two ways to speed vote counting

Latvia could speed up vote counting in future parliamentary elections by ending the option to deposit ballots for safekeeping or amending the Constitution to allow advance voting, Central Election Commission head Māris Zviedris said, LSM reported.

The count in the 15th Saeima election was scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 3, but started more than two hours late as election officials checked and invalidated ballots deposited for safekeeping by voters who later changed their choice or voted on election day.

More than 165,000 voters, or about 11%, used the safekeeping option, compared with more than 60,000 in 2022. Commission data shortly after 1 a.m. showed that more than 650 voters had changed their choice.

Zviedris said depositing ballots for safekeeping was convenient for voters but placed a heavy burden on polling station staff. He said the delay was foreseeable and did not mean the commission had done anything wrong.

He said removing the safekeeping option was one possible solution, but he did not consider it the best choice given how widely voters had used it. The other proposal, which the commission plans to put to the new Saeima, is to amend the relevant constitutional provision and allow advance voting.

The Constitution currently sets Saeima elections for the first Saturday in October. As a result, voters who cast ballots earlier are legally depositing them for safekeeping rather than voting in advance. Those ballots are added to the other votes after polling stations close, following checks.