Dozens of ballots cast during advance voting for European parliament elections may have to be discarded, if election officials find they have not received an official voting stamp. A postal worker may have inadvertently stamped the envelopes into which the ballots were placed rather than the ballots themselves.
According to law, unstamped ballot papers are to be discarded as spoiled ballots. Authorities will determine whether or not the ballots will be discarded only during the formal election from May 22 to 25, when votes are counted. Advance voting began on May 14 and will end May 20.
One voter spoke to Yle about going to vote at the Tapiola post office in Espoo; however the official on duty refused to stamp the ballot paper, instead insisting that only the sealed envelope should be stamped.
"An incredible mistake"
"This is an incredible mistake," said Risto Pirkanniemi, secretary of the Central Election Commission of the City of Espoo.
Pirkanniemi disclosed that the city later discovered 69 stamped election envelopes at the Tapiloa post office. However officials are barred from opening the envelopes before election day and are therefore unable to determine whether or not the ballots inside the envelopes were stamped.
"We assume that they have not been stamped," Pirkanniemi said. No other stamped envelopes have since been encountered.
Posti, the consumer arm of Finnish postal and delivery services company Itella, is responsible for training its workers in election protocol. Pirkanniemi said that similar problems have not occurred at polling stations run by the city itself.
Chief elections Officer Arto Jääskeläinen of the Ministry of Justice concurred that the stamped envelopes are not to be opened in Espoo but must be sent to the Uusimaa election commission to be counted on election day. At that time the Uusimaa election commission will determine whether or not the ballots were spoiled and should be binned.
"Only on that day will we know whether or not the ballots in the envelopes have been stamped," Jääskeläinen noted.
Iltella apologises, blames human error
Meanwhile the state-owned postal services provider Itella has apologised for the blunder and has distributed new guidelines to staff working at postal polling stations.
"One person has possibly acted incorrectly while on duty at a polling station," Itella director Ulla Seppälä said.
"It is likely merely a matter of human error," she added.
Seppälä would not comment on whether or not the worker in question had any prior experience in election work.
She said that Itella has been involved in elections for nearly 40 years and said she did not remember any other similar incident. Seppälä noted that elections officials are trained by the Central Election Commission.
The Itella official said that company supervisors have now reiterated training for all election workers in Espoo.
"We have also issued instructions to revise all the critical points of the election process in all the locations where we are operating polling stations. We are also calling those locations to ensure that they have once more reviewed the guidelines," she added.
Itella is also reviewing the case with Justice Ministry officials, who are responsible for administering elections in Finland.