Bulgaria will pick the serial numbers of voting machines for checks before the presidential election in a public draw at the innovation ministry, officials say. The draw is random, and innovation minister Ivan Vasilev will attend.

The election commission and its public council, the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization, the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology, parties in parliament, and the parties and initiative committees running in the presidential election have all been invited.

The ministry says it wants the draw to make every step of the machine-checking process as open as possible. It says trust in the vote depends on transparency at every stage.

A few days ago, officials approved updated rules for checking whether the voting machines meet the requirements of the election code and the technical specs. The rules carry the signatures of minister Ivan Vasilev, acting metrology institute head Paun Ilchev, and standardization institute board chairman Ivelin Burov.

The presidential election is set for October 25, 2026.

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