Observator International

On Sunday, 28 November 2010 I served as an Observator International for the Parliamentary elections in Moldova. I visited 6 polls in the Chisinau City Center that I visited back in September during the constitutional referendum. It was good to have a point of comparison.

20 parties + 19 independent candidates = one very long ballot

The ballot looked as if it was about a yard long (and about 4 inches wide). Voters had to fold it up several times to be able to fit it in the ballot box. At a few of the polling locations, poll workers were carrying around rulers and used them to push the thick ballots into the box.

Voters could select a ballot in Russian or in Romanian.

Each polling location had many observers. All of the major parties had observers at the polls all day. (So there were usually at least a dozen other observers there when we arrived at any given polling location)

The procedure was the same. When we arrived, we would check in with the President of that polling location and register. Then we were free to look around and ask questions (of the President, other observers, voters)

The only difference was that for this election turnout was very high, the polls were quite crowded, and we often needed to wait quite a while until we were registered. This was understandable and actually gave us time to take everything in before we asked our specific questions.

Again we saw the laptop/online registration that was part of a pilot program at the precincts we visited in the City Center. The only difference this time was that it was so crowded, sometimes voters would bypass the the laptop line, go directly to the "traditional" line (where the paper voter lists are arranged by street address, not by voter last name) -- only to be sent back to wait in the laptop line -- before having to go back and wait in the "traditional" line again. The only surprising thing was that voters did not seem to get disgruntled by this added inconvenience.

Each of the polls we visited was quite crowded. Here are a few photos. If you go back and look at the photos I posted in September (of these same precincts), you can see the contrast.