Voters in Netherlands face issue with postal ballots

Netherlands Interior Minister Kajsa Ollongren says voters are having issues with the postal ballots as the parliamentary elections entered day two on Tuesday.

“Many older people above 70, who can vote by mail for the first time in this election, have made mistakes on their ballots.

“For their votes still to be counted, the counting procedure for postal ballots would be changed.

“Voting confidentiality will be maintained in this way,’’ Ollongren said on Tuesday in The Hague.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Wednesday’s election has been extended by two days, with voting already possible from Monday.

Voting by post, which is usually only available to citizens outside the country, has also been extended to elderly people.

But during the sorting of the envelopes, election workers found that many older citizens had put the ballot and the piece of paper with their name in the same envelope, meaning the vote can be linked to their identity and won’t be anonymous.

The ministry said this issue concerned about five to10 per cent of votes.

With the new procedure, the envelopes may be opened to take out the name slip, but without looking at the folded ballot.

Then the envelopes would be dropped in a ballot box to be counted on Wednesday.