Votes canceled and voting operations suspended for a few hours, in some electoral sections of the Municipality of Reggio Calabria due to an error in the delivery of the ballots for the constituencies. In sections 19, 127 and 16, located in the «Panella-Valluri» Industrial Technical Institute, right in the city centre, due to an exchange of parcels, the electoral cards for the II «Reggio Calabria Est» district were mistakenly delivered instead of the I, «Reggio Centro».
The temporary block and the first votes cancelled
In sections 19 and 127, the presidents of the polling stations, when voting opened, immediately noticed the error and immediately suspended voting operations. In section 16, the error was found when 5 voters had already voted. The ballots were canceled and the Municipality’s electoral office was urgently notified to send new packages with the correct ballots. The suspension lasted for over two hours, until the right ballots arrived.
Similar error in another institute
A similar problem, with the sending of incorrect district cards, also affected section 193, in the «Pascoli-Vitrioli-Principe di Piemonte-Galilei» comprehensive institute. When the error was noticed, 29 people had already voted. The votes have been annulled and activities are underway to trace the voters whose vote for the election of the president and the Council of the 1st «Reggio Centro» district was annulled.
Voter recovery procedures
In section 16, three of the five voters who had voted with the incorrect ballots were traced and have already cast their vote on the correct ballot.