Watch out for cheating voters
Starting from the presumption that both the voters and the electoral competitors will display extreme honesty in the upcoming parliamentary elections on April 5, it's not a secret that different types of cheats in elections have always been in place.
A guide compiled by the National Initiative Party (PIN) from Romania shows several methods used to gerrymander the vote. We'll list them, so that the authorities and society can track them easier, if such tricks are also used on April 5:
1. "Shuttle". The voter is given a stamped ballot, taken away from the voting booth, that he is to cast into the box. Instead, the voter returns the ballot he receives from the station to the frauds against money. The procedure is repeated.
2."Relay". It's a simpler version of “the shuttle” consisting in voters' not casting their stamped ballots, but giving them to a party representative against money. He then gives those ballots to other voters.
3. "Blue shirt". The voter declares himself unable to focus on the vote and asks for the assistance of a certain member of the polling station panel (for instance the guy ''in a blue shirt”.)
4. The bribed voter uses his mobile phone to snap a picture of his ballot to prove he has voted “as due".
5. The elections can be rigged while counting the votes by sneaking ballots from one pile to another, to be counted several times.
6. Two “voted” stamps are applied on the opponents' ballots to annul the ballots.
7. The ballots not voted “as due” are replaced by ones sealed “as due”
8. Giving defective ballots to voters suspected of not voting “as due”, a situation that can be mainly used in villages, where the political options are known.
9. Rigging is done easier by partisan observers.
10. One can even bribe the entire panel of a polling station.
11. The authorities can print extra ballots, which, after being sealed while going with the mobile box, are just as good as any ballot.
Countering the electoral gerrymandering is done by enhanced attention paid to the voting and counting process, watching the usage of the mobile box and of the additional lists of voters.
Watch out!