Corona could cause election result delays on Monday

The election staff must keep extra distance from each other when counting the votes. This could lead to delays in the election result on Monday.

“It is important that the election staff keep their distance and respect infection control rules even when they count the votes. This can cause the counting of votes to take a little longer. It is, therefore, possible that the final result will be clear somewhat later than usual this year,” department director Siri Dolven in the Ministry of Local Government and Modernization told NTB.

To make the work a little easier, the municipalities have been allowed to start the preliminary counting of advance votes one day earlier than usual – on Sunday.

“This temporary change in the law has been made to reduce the risk of delays in the count,” Dolven said.

Preparations

The actual voting process during the advance voting has mostly followed the same pace as in previous years, despite infection control measures in the polling stations.

“We know that many people have voted in advance this year… The municipalities have prepared well, but there may be queues at the voting station on election day,” the department director added.

Even before election day, there have been queues at voting stations. Due to long queues at the premises for advance voting on Friday, the municipality asked people registered in Oslo to wait until election day to vote.

Must vote from home

Voters who are healthy should turn up and vote as normal, but they have to follow the infection control advice that applies.

The municipalities must also have their own voting scheme for voters who are in quarantine or have symptoms. Drive-in voting, specially adapted voting stations, or mobile voting solutions are in place in several places.

Voters in corona isolation aren’t allowed to go to the voting station and must request voting from home from their home municipality. The deadline is Monday at 10 AM.

“It is important to contact the municipality as soon as possible so that they can organize it in a good and efficient way,” Dolven said.

This year, a record number of people have voted in advance. On Friday, the number of advance votes was up to 1.48 million, which corresponds to 38.1% of all eligible voters.

Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews

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