New BiH Ballots: Circles Replace X's for October 4 Vote
Bosnia's Central Election Commission has unveiled the new ballot design for the October 4 vote: a circle filled in by pen, then every ballot passes through a scanner before the box.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Central Election Commission posted on its account on X today the design of the new ballots for the general election set for October 4, covering the two races followed most closely from Belgrade: the election of members of the Presidency of BiH and the election of the president and vice presidents of Republika Srpska. Until now, only the principle was known, that the X mark was being replaced by a circle. As of today, voters can see the actual ballot form, the instructions for filling it in, and the steps for feeding it into the scanner that comes before the ballot box.
The Circle Is Mandatory, the Candidate Isn’t
The ballot no longer has a box to mark with an X. A circle now appears next to the name of every political entity and every candidate, to be filled in with a pen or marker that will be provided in the voting booth.
Marking the political entity is mandatory. A ballot with circles filled in only next to candidate numbers, with no party or coalition marked, will be invalid. The reverse does not apply: marking individual candidates is optional, so a voter who accepts the order on the list can simply fill in the circle next to the party or coalition name.
The form itself is bilingual, with instructions printed in both Latin and Cyrillic script. On the ballot for the Presidency of BiH, above the voting field, there is also a specific warning that a voter may cast a ballot for either the Bosniak or the Croat candidate, but not both.
What Happens If a Voter Marks an X Anyway?
The ballot will not be invalid. The difference is that a scanner and a human eye will not necessarily read the same mark the same way, which is why manual counting has been kept at every polling station as a check. That is also why the results produced by the scanners will not be the final word.
The scanning procedure has three steps. The ballot is first turned face down, so the candidates’ names are not visible. Each ballot is then fed individually into the front slot of the scanner, one at a time. Finally, the voter follows the instructions that appear on the screen, confirming that the vote has been processed.
Fingerprint Checks at Every Regular Polling Station
Alongside the scanners, every regular polling station will also get biometric devices, adding a further identity check by fingerprint. CIK BiH member Irena Hadziabdic summed up the effect in a few words:
The upgrade means it will no longer be possible to vote in someone else’s place, and it will no longer be possible to vote on behalf of people who have died.
The same device also produces same-day statistics on turnout, as well as the gender and age breakdown of voters, data the election administration in BiH has not had before.
CIK BiH member Suad Arnautovic walked through the procedure step by step: a voter enters the polling station, is identified by ID, goes through fingerprint authentication, receives a set of ballots, votes in the booth, and then, instead of placing the ballot straight into the box, first feeds it through the scanner. Responding to claims circulating publicly, he was blunt:
This is not electronic voting, this is about digitizing the election process in the way that has just been explained. For the voter, nothing changes in their active participation at the polling station.
Results on Election Night, for the First Time
The practical payoff of scanning is speed. Once polling stations close, votes are transmitted electronically to the Central Election Commission, and a first snapshot is expected the same evening.
For the first time, we expect the public to have access to results at every level of government just a few hours after the polls close.
These will be preliminary, unofficial and incomplete results, since manual counting still has to follow. For the race for president of Republika Srpska, that means the outline of the result could be known the same day, instead of the multi day tally that voters in BiH, and the public in Serbia, have grown used to.
The ballot design is the last visible step in a process that began with the CIK’s decision to call the election and the closing of the Central Voter Register, which lists 3,414,364 voters. The campaign officially starts on September 4, and until then both paid political advertising and any early presentation of candidates are banned. The calendar is bookended on both sides: a month of campaigning, then a vote cast with a circle.
