CEC: Hospitalized and isolated citizens will be able to vote
By Khatia Bzhalava
Tuesday, October 20
According to the decision of the Central Election Commission of Georgia (CEC), all COVID patients as well as ones in isolation will be able to vote on Election Day on October 31st. CEC created a special working group, which will ensure the delivery of ballot boxes to electors who are quarantined or hospitalized.
According to the statement published by the commission, a special working group, created at the initiative of the CEC, held meetings in this regard and reviewed the preventive measures and sanitary-hygiene rules that must be observed during this process. The special group consists of the representatives of election administration, political parties, civil society, and international organizations.
The statement reads that CEC offers the voters who are in hospitals or in quarantine to participate in the election through the service provided by the special groups, which have the functions of an election commission. In particular, within the jurisdiction of the District Election Commission in municipalities, CEC will create at least one polling station which will be staffed with special groups.
The special group members will ensure the delivery of ballot boxes to the hospitalized and quarantined voters. CEC informs that self-isolated voters, whose data are officially recorded in the database of the relevant institutions, will also be able to use the service of mobile ballot box based upon their request.
CEC remarks that their offer about establishing separate polling stations for inpatients and isolated voters and providing them with mobile ballot boxes through special groups ensures maximum health safety. As the statement reads, every member of the special group will be properly equipped with disposable robes, masks, gloves, protective shields, and sanitary-hygiene products.
For the safety of the process, the special groups and polling stations will have no contact with ordinary ones. According to the commission, the votes from the mobile ballot box will be counted in specially created polling stations.
CEC notes that according to the law, observers, media and representatives of election entities will be able to follow the mobile ballot box and observe the process of voting as well as vote counting.
