[REVISION HISTORY]

Bulgarian presidential election irregularities in Plovdiv

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2026-11-01 19:03 UTC → 2026-11-03 05:34 UTC · added ~~removed~~

During the presidential election period in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, two distinct administrative issues were reported in the Istochen district. On October 20, election officials discovered 200 damaged ballots after noticing a compromised seal on a ballot box. The District Election Commission confirmed two stacks of 100 ballots were unfit for use. These were removed and secured by the Ministry of Interior, though officials noted that a reserve of 4,300 ballots was available to prevent a shortage. During the presidential runoff elections, a separate incident occurred at polling station section 54, where a man listed as deceased on the electoral rolls was permitted to vote. Officials identified the situation as a technical error caused by a name coincidence between two individuals during the update of voter lists between the first and second rounds. After verifying his valid identification, the commission allowed him to cast his ballot. Broader technical errors and unusual incidents have since been reported across other Bulgarian regions during the second round. In Haskovo, a vote was declared invalid after a voter was filmed taking a photo of their ballot during machine voting. In Sliven, a voter in Elenovo reportedly tore up a machine-printed receipt before apologizing. Other reported issues include technical malfunctions with voting machines, inadequate heating or lighting at polling stations, and discrepancies in Sofia where the number of printed receipts exceeded the number of registered votes. Additionally, in the Chengene Skale area near Burgas, fishermen were required to travel to other locations to vote because their local settlement lacks a dedicated polling station. Regarding machine performance, the Ministry of Innovation and Digital Transformation reported that over 99.8% of the 11,902 voting machines functioned correctly, with only 28 machines experiencing issues.

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