The full result of upcoming MEP and local council elections will be declared within just six hours, rather than after three or four days, thanks to a new e-counting system, the Electoral Commission said on Tuesday.
In a press briefing, Malta’s elections tsar Joe Church said the European Parliament and local council elections, scheduled for May 25, would be the first in Maltese electoral history to see ballots counted using a state-of-the-art new counting system rather than manually processed by vote counters.
“This is a change we have been talking about for some years. Last December work started with an international service provider and now we are gearing up for the upcoming elections. We are at a very advanced stage today,” he said.
Read: The days of “banging on the perspex” in the counting hall soon over
The Naxxar counting hall is already set up for the change and looks much the same as in previous years, with the same area for political parties’ agents behind the infamous Perspex wall untouched.
However, on the other side of the Perspex, the large wooden set up for counters has been replaced by a set-up of 26 scanners – two for every electoral district.
Each district has a set of six large screens that face the Perspex that will display ballots with the valid preferences highlighted.
Behind the screens sit desks with specialised computers for votes to be adjudicated.
The scanners, Mr Church explained, process stacks of ballots in much the same way as bank note counters, and have been specially programmed to recognise a wide range of vote markings.
If a ballot has more than one third preference for instance – this will be flagged by the scanner, and is checked by electoral commission officers at adjudication stage.
Idox, the UK company that the commission engaged to provide the e-counting technology, told Times of Malta that software system would not only process the overall vote but could calculate the complex vote inheritance that would often take several days, in just a few hours.
The Idox technology has already been rolled out in Scotland.
Political parties, Idox said, would still have a say in verifying votes.
And the company is still engaged in dialogue with local political parties to see whether a system of early indications can be found.
Meanwhile, Mr Church said that two mock elections would be held to stress test the technology, with the first scheduled for December 1.
The ballots have also been upgraded to work with the new system. Mr Church said these were made slightly thicker to facilitate the scanning process.
Candidates would also have a photo beside their name.