Voting machines worked without major problems today, though 21 broke down across Bulgaria. At several polling stations in the Burgas area, receipts jammed and halted voting. In section 16 in Karnobat, the machine would not start, so people there voted only on paper.
One polling station each in Varna and Aksakovo also use only paper ballots. In Blagoevgrad there are two, and in Belitsa people are also unhappy. Elsewhere, problems printing receipts are slowing the work of election commissions.
At polling station 218 in Burgas, paper keeps jamming in the machine. Commission chair Atanasia Petrova said staff called the regional election commission and a technician. He came at once and fixed the fault. "But 15 minutes later the same problem came back," Petrova said.
A technician from Siela Norma said the machine pulls in the paper, and when the printer is opened the receipt is inside. He is waiting for senior technicians to decide how to carry on. The votes at the station have still been counted.
At polling station 17 in Blagoevgrad, people vote only on paper. "We want to use the machine too, it's easier, but the machine did not work," said commission chair Rosen Marianov. He said a paper vote means tearing a stub off the ballot and applying two stamps, which is slower for both the commission and the voter.
Commission members say flatly that machine votes are much easier to count than paper ones.
This time the machines did not cause trouble for most voters, though some complained. One woman said she found it hard to find her way around and would not have managed without her daughter showing her where to press. Another voter said: "I'm waiting for them to send it, I'll pick something short."
Early on 1 November, Georgi Mihov, chair of the regional election commission in Burgas, said all polling stations in the region had opened on time. He said the only problem was in Karnobat, where a machine broke down at opening and the station switched to paper ballots. Before the vote, 653 machines were distributed in the Burgas area.
With the breakdowns on election day, the argument for and against machine voting has started again.