What about crosses and postal voting?

Voters voting by post in European Elections 2024 will receive postal envelopes from cooperating courier companies by the middle of next week. The total number of registrants reached 202,556 (153,322 registration applications from residents of the territory and 49,234 from Greeks abroad).

Each folder contains the following:

A multi-page form with detailed instructions for the remote voting process and lists of MEP candidates from all parties,

ballot,

Ballot envelope in which the ballot should be placed,

Application – Responsible Notice, Postal Ballot and

The postal ballot return envelope will be given to a courier company to take it to a special area where all postal ballots will be collected. The venue is located in Peristeri, Attica, where Deputy Minister of the Interior Thodoris Livanios toured members of the internal party committee last Wednesday, reassuring representatives of all parties of the integrity of the process.

Postal voting process step by step

In the relevant circular of Athanasios Palerbas, Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior and Organization, the postal voting process is described in detail:

1. Voter fills and signs Application-Responsibility Declaration. With the responsible declaration, the voter declares as follows:

a) Registered in the Special Electoral Roll of Postal Voters and will not vote in person in upcoming elections until the file is received by the Special Postal Ballot Collection Committee.

b) Completion of ballot paper including selection of candidates is done exclusively by him without any other person. The choice expressed in the ballot paper expresses only his own choice.

c) He knows that it is a criminal offense to falsify this declaration and to declare the above information falsely.

2. The voter may express his preference in favor of a maximum of four (4) candidates, i.e. 0 or 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 admission candidates in accordance with the 4 provisions of Law 4255/2014. to vote.
The voter places an optional cross by circling or marking the number corresponding to the candidate or candidates of this alliance in the special section of the ballot paper of his choice for the party or coalition of cooperating parties he prefers. Express his will.

If an optional cross is not added, the ballot will be considered blank. If an optional cross is placed in a compound and no candidate for admission is selected, the ballot shall be valid in favor of admission. If the candidates are elected without the optional cross, the ballot will be considered invalid. If the preference is crossed on the note “I do not choose any of the above – I vote blank”, the ballot paper is considered blank, regardless of whether the candidates are elected or not.

If the voter selects more than the maximum number of candidates allowed, the ballot will be considered valid for the purpose of inclusion, however, the cross preference will not be taken into account. The voter indicates the total number of preferences i.e. 0 to 4 for the candidates he has selected on the ballot paper.

If a voter does not complete the number of optional crosses, the ballot paper shall be deemed valid for the purpose of admission, although no optional crosses shall be taken into account.

The voter places the ballot paper in the voting envelope and seals the envelope using a special sticker.

3. Writing any element in the ballot file is prohibited under penalty of invalidation of the ballot.

4. Inside the return envelope, the voter places a sealed ballot envelope containing the ballot paper, responsible notice or electronically, through the special application attached. https://epistoliki.ypes.gov.gr, one on paper. If the voter fills up the declaration of responsibility on paper, it should be placed in a return envelope other than the sealed ballot envelope.
a) Signed Application – Responsible Notice of Postal Votes, and b) Photocopy of two (2) pages of his Police ID Card or Greek Driver’s License or Greek Passport or Armed Forces or Defense Forces Identity Card. Before transferring responsibility to the Hellenic Police, we accept cut-off IDs, expired passports and passports issued by provincial self-governments. The provisions contained in this paragraph (4) are necessary to ensure the identity of the voter and to prevent the malicious exercise of the right to vote by third parties.

Paper Application – The responsible declaration is kept separately and cannot be attached to the ballot paper in any way, while a photocopy of the identity card is required to confirm the voter’s identity and to prevent malicious exercise of the right. Vote by a third party.

5. As per the instructions written in the relevant forms, the postal ballot return envelope is sent by the voters. Sending the envelope by a third party is prohibited, unless expressly authorized by the voter for this purpose, exclusively in case of his inability to send the envelope.

To mail election files specifically within the territory:

a) The contractor or contractors of the postal or courier services shall verify the voter’s identity or express authorization before receiving the postal ballot return envelope.

b) Sending file through post or courier service providers not contracted with Ministry of Home Affairs is not allowed.

6. Electors ensure timely delivery of postal voting envelopes. Both receiving the postal ballot envelope from the voter and sending the postal ballot envelope from the voter are free as the cost is borne by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

7. To help the voter and especially the differently abled voters, an application can be used on the website of the Ministry of Home Affairs, where the voter selects the combination he wants and then selects the candidates he wants to express his preference. and prints the electronically filled ballot paper with his preferences.

Postal ballot return files will be received by the Postal Ballot Collection Committee until the day before the election, i.e. Saturday 8 June at 17.00 Greek time.