International Election Observation: UKRAINE
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Over the past four weeks, I have had the honor to participate as an international election observer as a member of the NDI delegation to Ukraine.
T he initial election was held on Sunday, March 31 with 39 candidates running for President. After arriving in Kiev, I spent the first four days with the delegation reviewing protocols and procedures for election observers as well as participating in meetings with journalists and other notable Ukrainians who provided indepth awareness of the party system and candidate profiles.
Following the initial four days in Kiev I was dispatched to Odesa, a large city in southern Ukraine and the countries largest port city on the Black Sea following the annexation of Crimea. Our indoctrination in Kiev provided us with a solid background of candidates, party supporters, disruptors and potential security risks we could possibly encounter in our observation locations. Upon arriving in Odesa, I discovered that the southern region, and specifically the city of Odesa, is primarily a Russian speaking population and the city’s architecture reflects relics of the Soviet era. We arrived on Friday, March 29th in time to familiarize ourselves with the polling locations we would observe as well as meet some local elections officials we would be engaging with on election day.
During the course of the day on Saturday, we took the opportunity to explore some of the city center to evaluate if the campaign blackout period was being respected and if there were any signs of disruption or roaming para-military groups present who would intimidate voters.
Election day as an observer is extremely challenging, as the polls in Ukraine open at 8:00am and close at 8:00pm. We arrived at the initial polling station at 7:15am to observe the opening procedures, which I will forgo the details of, as they are extensive and procedural in nature. I will say these procedures at the polling station we observed were executed perfectly and without disruption in the full spirit of cooperation.
Once voting begins, observers simply watch for signs of procedural violations while noting the understanding of the procedures by the election officials present. At this point our team began the 12-hour process, of which included traveling throughout Odesa, visiting a total of 9 polling locations, and returning to our initial starting point at 7:45pm just in time to see the last ballot cast and the closing procedures begin. I might note at this point that ballots used in Ukraine are physical paper ballots that contained all 39 candidates names that appeared similar to the Dead Sea scrolls! The voting booths are designed in a similar 1950’s fashion where one enters and draws the curtain closed behind them and the ballot boxes are clear transparent containers in plain view of the entire polling place.
“Why do your people all have both their hands?”
Mr. Zelensky's question to President Poroshenko
in reference to his 2017 promise to "cut off the hands
of those who steal in the army.”
The real fun begins after the polls close and the counting begins.
The polling station where we observed closing procedures had approximately 2200 registered voters with a 70+% voter turnout. The ballots are dumped in the middle of a large table, where each ballot is collected one-by-one from the table by the designated election official and the name of the candidate voted for is read aloud to the room. This process continues as each ballot read aloud is then placed into a designated candidate location on the table and repeated until all ballots are allocated according to the vote. Should a ballot be unclear or intentionally voided, it is presented to the entire group of the designated poll officials and either discarded into a invalid pile or the voter intention is unanimously agreed to and submitted for counting.
Shortly after midnight the final tally was concluded and the closing procedures were completed and transported to the central location where all polling stations delivered their results. We returned to the hotel at approximately 2am only to depart for the airport at 5am to fly back to Kiev for our debrief with the entire delegation. Lets just say we were a bit tired!
The observation of this first round did not unveil any attempts by nefarious actors to delegitimize the results. In fact, I have to say our observations reflected a true pursuit of transparency and goal of moving forward real democracy for Ukraine. As for paper ballots U.S. Congressman John Shimkus R-IL stated in a press conference following the runoff on April 21 that he would actually support returning to paper ballots with transparent ballot boxes in U.S. elections. I rarely agree with Congressman Shimkus but the purity of the Ukrainian system leaves little path to voter fraud. If Congressman Shimkus is a supporter of transparency in elections that begs the question of why he voted against H.R. 1, a comprehensive anti-corruption and voting rights bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The second round on April 21st, or final runoff between Poroshenko (the incumbent) and Zelensky (the challenger), was extremely similar to my initial experience with the following exceptions.
I was dispatched to Lviv, an extraordinarily beautiful city in western Ukraine that reflected the architecture of a mini-Paris. The city has a very youthful population and the primary language in the west is Ukrainian. The procedures were extremely similar and the outcomes nearly identical.
Ukraine has elected a new leader, a television actor with no previous experience in the government sector. The overwhelming consensus of Ukrainians was the current president, Mr. Poroshenko, had not fulfilled his previous campaign promises of curbing corruption and was responsible for squashing the momentum of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Mr. Zelensky has promised to reignite that momentum and accused President Poroshenko of failing to address corruption among the oligarchs in the country - a promise Poroshenko had made in 2017 by stating he would “cut off the hands of those who steal in the army.” Mr. Zelensky questioned President Poroshenko, “Why do your people all have both their hands?” Let’s hope for Ukraine and it’s democracy that the now President Zelensky is capable of keeping both his hands.
The observation of this first round did not unveil any attempts by nefarious actors to delegitimize the results. In fact, I have to say our observations reflected a true pursuit of transparency and goal of moving forward real democracy for Ukraine. As for paper ballots U.S. Congressman John Shimkus R-IL stated in a press conference following the runoff on April 21 that he would actually support returning to paper ballots with transparent ballot boxes in U.S. elections. I rarely agree with Congressman Shimkus but the purity of the Ukrainian system leaves little path to voter fraud. If Congressman Shimkus is a supporter of transparency in elections that begs the question of why he voted against H.R. 1, a comprehensive anti-corruption and voting rights bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
