From now on, voters should always be able to vote on multiple days. That is the opinion of outgoing Minister of the Interior Ollongren. Last March, people could vote in some polling stations as early as two days before the actual election date.
Then it was a corona measure, but Ollongren wants to make it possible as standard. At the same time, the number of proxy votes that someone can cast must then be reduced from two to one.
Specify voting secret
By reducing the number of proxies, the minister is responding to criticism from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He is critical of the proxies, because a voter has to give up his or her voting secrecy and there is a risk of recruiting votes.
According to Ollongren, research shows that two in ten voters want to use early voting. In fact, almost a third of people aged 70 and older indicate that they will use it.
Right
The cost of early voting is estimated at 11 to 13 million euros per election. The intention is to enable multi-day voting in the Provincial Council elections in 2023.
The OSCE further states that a judge must be able to rule on the validity of the election results. In the Netherlands, only representatives of the people can decide on this.
Ollongren wants to think about adjusting that too, she writes in a response to a report from the OSCE, which was present with observers in March. The minister will issue a position on this next year.
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