Vanhanen suggests releasing daily results of advance postal voting in national elections
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Centre Party chairman, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, is proposing that in future elections, results should be made public as the votes are cast. He also proposes that on the days of advance postal voting by absentee ballot, the votes could be tallied and the interim results announced at the end of each day.
Vanhanen says that electronic voting could make such an arrangement possible. He predicts that such an arrangement would boost interest in elections and encourage a higher turnout.
“When people see the impact of the votes each day, enthusiasm for voting would increase and add vigour to campaigning as well”, Vanhanen said, who was quoted by the Centre Party newspaper Suomenmaa.
According to the paper, he put his idea forward on Friday during a visit to a school in Helsinki, and he has also discussed the matter unofficially with the government.
Releasing election returns in real time could be tested in a situation in which voting takes place at polling stations, and not on the Internet.
The new system could not apply to next month’s municipal elections. They will be conducted using traditional paper ballots, except for three municipalities, where electronic voting will be tried.
Vanhanen said that electronic voting could take place nationwide in the 2015 Parliamentary elections at the earliest.
He also said that in Parliamentary elections the votes for each candidate could be tallied on a daily basis. However, in municipal electiolns daily tallies would not be feasible, as voter confidentiality would be more difficult to secure.
In the first direct presidential election in 1994, some controversy was sparked by the reporting of interim information on the possible results during advance voting.
A number of media outlets, including Helsingin Sanomat, conducted exit polls at advance voting stations and reported the results. This sparked considerable criticism, and the practice was abandoned.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 24.9.2008 - TODAY |
 Vanhanen suggests releasing daily results of advance postal voting in national elections |
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