A polling station commission member will stamp the receipt from the voting machine before the voter drops it in the box at the presidential election, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has decided.
The change is to the guidelines on machine voting for polling station commissions, which the CEC had already approved. The first version had no stamp, although a commission member stamped the receipts at the last few elections. Without a stamp on the back, questions came up about how to count them.
When the machine prints the receipt, the CEC guidelines say: "The voter checks the details of their choice on the control receipt, folds it with the text inside and hands it to a member of the commission to be stamped."
"After stamping, the commission member gives the control receipt back to the voter, who must put it in the box for machine voting receipts," the document says.
In all, 6,590,000 people can vote, including 46,000 who have turned 18 and will vote for the first time.
Bulgaria has 9,373 polling stations with machines. Those with more than 780 voters will have two machines each. In all, 11,622 machines are planned for election day. Abroad, there are 613 polling stations. Of these, 242 will vote by machine, and 24 will have two machines each.
The campaign ends at midnight on 23 October, followed by a day of reflection. The CEC will announce the results 48 hours after election day ends. Any second round will be scheduled based on those results.