Bulgaria's Central Election Commission (CIK) has ordered 1,500 tactile templates from the Demax print shop. Blind and visually impaired people will use them to vote on paper ballots in the presidential election on 25 October.
The print shop must deliver the templates to the regional election commissions by Friday, 23 October. The regional commissions and municipal administrations will then distribute them to the polling station commissions.
The commission approved the decision unanimously, with 9 votes in favour. It followed a closed working discussion of technical and logistical issues that lasted nearly two hours.
Commission member Georgi Bahanov submitted the proposal. He said people with disabilities must be able to vote on their own, without help from others, with the same opportunities as other voters.
The draft set the deadline at Saturday, 24 October. Deputy chair Ismail Osman proposed moving it one day earlier. Osman said the earlier date gives the regional commissions enough time to pass the templates to polling stations before election day.