Voting
The voter will receive a ballot paper when voting in the polling place of residence or at home. If you are voting outside of your polling place of residence and in a custodial institution, hospital, your location or a twenty-four hour social welfare institution, you will additionally receive one small and one bigger envelope and a list of candidates in your district of residence. The ballot paper, envelopes as well as the list of candidates will be issued based on your identity document.
Your identity document is a document issued by a national authority that includes your name, date of birth or personal identification code, photo or facial image and signature or signature image. Documents such as an ID-card and Estonian citizen’s passport are traditionally suitable for identifying a person, but you can also present a diplomatic passport, seafarer’s discharge book or a certificate of record of service on Estonian ships. The voter can also identify their identity with another document if it has been issued under the current law or based on a legal act and it includes the voter’s name, date of birth or personal identification code, photo or facial image and signature or signature image. A pension certificate is not considered an identity document.
The voter must fill in the ballot paper independently and alone in the voting booth. If it is not possible due to a physical disability, another voter (but not a candidate in their electoral district of residence) can help them if the voter has requested it and is present. The voter will write the registration number of the candidate for whom they are casting their vote in the provided space.
If the voter spoils the ballot paper or discovers that the paper has a defect, they can replace the damaged ballot paper with a new one. The voter has to return the damaged ballot paper to the electoral committee. If the voter has already noted their decision on the ballot paper, they must cross it out before returning it to the electoral committee so that the decision is not readable. The damaged ballot paper returned by the voter will be marked as damaged and will not be considered in counting the votes.
In the polling places of residence, the voter folds the ballot paper after filling it out and brings it to a member of the electoral committee who will mark the paper with a seal. The voter deposits the ballot into the ballot box themselves. If this is not possible due to a physical disability, another voter can help them.
At home, voting takes place in the same way as in the polling place of the residence, the only difference being that the ballot will not be marked with a seal before being deposited into the ballot box.
Those who are voting in a polling place outside of their place of residence such as a custodial institution, hospital, their location or a twenty-four hour social welfare institution fold the ballot paper after filling it out and place it inside the interior (smaller) envelope. This guarantees the secrecy of voting because the interior (smaller) envelope does not contain information about the voter. In order to ensure that the vote gets to the right polling place, the smaller envelope has to be placed inside the bigger one on which the voter’s place of residence and a note of their official polling place of residence have been marked. This will ensure that the vote will arrive at the right polling place. The voter deposits the ballot into the ballot box themselves. If this is not possible due to a physical disability, another voter can help them. The envelope will not be marked with a seal.