The Agency: Ballot Papers Could Be Scrapped

The election has been marked by thousands of reported incidents. Among the highlighted issues are ballot papers that have disappeared from polling stations and situations where voters have struggled to find the party they wish to vote for.

Next year, a parliamentary inquiry will present proposals for what ballot papers might look like in the future. The background includes the extensive number of ballot papers in polling stations and recurring problems with ballots going missing.

In Sweden, three elections are held simultaneously, which means that a large number of ballot papers may exist in the same place for voters. According to the Election Authority, it can be as many as 103 different ballot papers in some municipalities.

Anna Nyqvist, Secretary General of the Election Authority, says that the vast number of ballot papers can make it difficult to get an overview of the ballot paper stands, and at the same time, it presents a challenge for the Swedish electoral system.

“The Election Authority considers that the ballot paper issue is a very significant problem,” she told SR.

At the same time, ballot papers have repeatedly been the source of incidents during the election. There have been thousands of reported incidents in the latest election alone, and they often concern ballot papers.

Parties in various places have noted that their ballot papers were missing or absent when voters arrived at polling stations. In several cases, individuals are suspected of having deliberately sabotaged parties by removing ballot papers from the stands. But it could also be a matter of new ballots not being replenished properly.

Wants to Gather Parties on Fewer Ballot Papers

The Election Authority has therefore developed an alternative to the current system. Instead of each party having its own ballot paper, the voter could receive a shared ballot paper for each election.

On this ballot paper, all parties participating in the election would be listed. The voter then marks the party to receive the vote and can simultaneously indicate a person for a preferential vote.

“We have proposed a system where voters receive one ballot paper per election, and all participating parties are listed. Then you check the party you want to vote for and write a number for the person you wish to give a preferential vote to,” Anna Nyqvist told SR.

The idea is, among other things, to make the voting situation simpler for voters and reduce the amount of material to be managed in polling stations. The Election Authority can propose these changes, but it is not the authority that decides how ballot papers will be designed in the future.

Instead, it is a political issue to be handled within the framework of the parliamentary inquiry. Such a change could also impact how parties conduct their election campaigns.

In the current system, the parties use their own ballot papers with party names and candidate names. How a new system would affect parties’ abilities to present their candidates and capture voters’ attention therefore becomes an important part of the discussion. On the Election Authority’s proposed new ballot, only numbers would be present.