KAS should reject ballots with marks to preserve candidates' votes, free from tampering

2025-06-25 14:04:00, Politikë CNA

KAS should reject ballots with marks to preserve candidates' votes, free

After Blerina Gjylameti and Erion Braçe, Ilir Alimehmeti also joined the claims against the recount taking place in the "Fahrie Hoti" hall.

And this is to prove that it is not only the SP candidates who are actively engaged in the process, but also those from the DP.

The specific allegations related to the invalid issuance of ballots by candidate Gjylameti are unknown, but the ballots published by candidate Braçe resemble the ballot published live yesterday by candidate Alimehmeti.

Ilir Alimehmeti "finds" live 27 votes that had been "stolen" by the DP counters
June 25, 07:40

In both the case of candidate Braçe and that of Alimehmet, KAS appears to have decided not to count the votes for those ballots that have marks other than the cross placed in the box dedicated to expressing one's will as a voter.

"Crying" Erion Braçe/ "They are stealing my votes"
June 24, 12:37

The news that Alimehmet was also given the same type of ballot paper shows, at the very least, that KAS is treating all candidates equally.

And this is a sign of correctness.

The claim, then, that KAS is doing this to change the list of winners is delusional.

How can the KAS know at the start of the recount how many votes with marks like those on Braça's ballots will appear in 1,230 boxes?

The other news, that Alimehmeti joins Braçe to not leave her alone, may need a few more lines to explain.

During the election campaign, every spot published by the CEC directed voting to the appropriate box.

No one from the CEC encouraged liberal voting with signs and markings wherever possible.

And there is a reason for that too.

The question that arises is: why does a voter decide to put the cross next to the candidate's name and not in the dedicated box?

Why did he bother to be precise and linear with the candidate's name by putting a cross to the right of the name, when there was a box dedicated to that purpose on the left?

Then why did someone have to underline the candidate's name, or circle it, when a cross in the corresponding box was enough?

The answer is simple. It is impossible to tell who voted for you among the hundreds of crosses placed in the same box, on hundreds of ballots.

But you can ask the pre-identified voter to make the sign distinct from the others.

Thus, the voter believes that the candidate will identify him/her.

It becomes even more strange when you see, for example, that on the ballots for candidate Braçe, the voter had chosen to put both a cross on the box and another cross after the candidate's name.

Has KAS discovered vote buying on behalf of Erion Braça?
June 24, 16:17

Is this type of "voting" code voting that allows the candidate to identify the voter or family who voted for him?

To understand the magnitude of this debate without argument, but with photos that are posted on personal social networks to suggest things to people, it is worth conducting an experiment that doesn't take anyone more than 15 minutes of their time.

Go to YouTube and watch the recount live at a random recount center. Choose it yourself.

You will see with your own eyes hundreds of regular ballots in that polling station, almost perfect, from all voters. And only if you are a lucky person will you manage to come across 1-2 votes WITH MARK for Braçe, Alimehmet or someone else.

Albanians in these elections have implemented the voting procedure with astonishing correctness.

Except when they had to leave a mark.

And while these marked votes are so few, the rule not to call them, if it didn't exist, would have to be invented.

The minimum to keep the votes for Braça and Alimehmet clean from buying and selling.