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18 DECEMBER 1998. - An Act to Organize Automated Voting by means of an Optical Reading System and to amend the Act of April 11, 1994 organizing automated voting (1)

ALBERT II, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
Article 1^er. This Act regulates a matter referred to in Article 77 of the Constitution.
CHAPTER I. - General provisions
Art. 2. The King may, by deliberate decree in the Council of Ministers, decide that for the electoral cantons that he designates and the communes that are part of it, a system of optical reading is established for the automated counting of votes. The use of such a system is limited to elections to be held between 1^er January 1999 and 31 December 2000 for each of the following levels:
1st elections for the European Parliament;
2° the elections for the Walloon Regional Council and the Flemish Council;
3° the elections for the Legislative Chambers;
4th elections for the Provincial Council;
5° the elections for the municipal council.
Art. 3. The president of the main canton office or the main municipal office, as the case may be, where an optical reading system is used for the automated counting of votes, has on the one hand, different reading and recording units of the votes cast and on the other, a computer system intended for the totalisation of the tables of the reading units as well as for the preparation of the minutes.
Art. 4. The optical reading system for automated counting of votes is placed at the main office of the canton or at the main municipal office in case of communal elections. It performs the following functions:
1 the reading and recording of ballots containing the votes cast;
2° the establishment of a table with the votes cast;
3° the magnetic-supported establishment of a table resuming the votes cast;
4° the totalisation of the votes, from the table(s) resuming the votes cast;
5° the publication of the results covering the entire canton or commune in case of communal elections.
Art. 5. The King sets out the technical standards of the systems referred to in articles 2, 3 and 4 to ensure their reliability and security, as well as the secret of votes.
Art. 6. The costs associated with the acquisition and operation of automated voting counting processes by means of an optical reading system, referred to in Article 2, as well as the printing of ballot papers adapted to this system, fall entirely at the expense of the State. The funds necessary for this purpose are included in the budget of the Ministry of the Interior.
Municipalities in the electoral districts referred to in Article 2 are excluded from the apportionment of costs relating to the printing of traditional ballots and the operation of the counting offices and the apportionment of expenses which, due to the implementation of the automated counting process of votes using an optical reading system, do not concern the electoral offices established in the said cantons.
Software intended for the automated voting process by means of an optical reading system as well as security elements and memory media are provided during each election by the Minister of the Interior or his delegate.
Art. 7. Optical reading systems for automated counting of votes and referred to in articles 2, 3 and 4 are the property of the Ministry of the Interior, which makes them available to the township municipalities referred to in Article 2.
The municipality that is the head of a canton referred to in Article 2 shall ensure the proper maintenance of the equipment and shall be responsible for its storage.
During the municipal elections, the commune chief township of the canton makes available to other municipalities which are part of it the necessary equipment for the organisation of the remains in the respective main communal offices. The distribution of the equipment between the different main offices of the canton takes place prorated by the number of electors registered by commune and according to the number of elections held simultaneously.
Art. 8. In the Act of 11 April 1994 organizing the automated vote as amended by the Act of 5 April 1995, a section 5bis is inserted as follows:
"Art. 5bis. § 1^er. In the election of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as regional and community councils:
1° the House of Representatives and the Senate and the Council of the Brussels-Capital Region may designate two experts each;
2° the Walloon Regional Council, the Flemish Council and the Council of the German-speaking Community can each appoint an expert.
Only members of these assemblies elected on the lists of a political party as defined in Article 1 may take part in the vote for the designation of these experts.^er, 1°, of the Act of 4 July 1989 relating to the limitation and control of election expenses incurred for the elections of the Federal Chambers, as well as to the financing and open accounting of political parties.
§ 2. These experts are appointed by a two-thirds majority in each meeting, no later than 30 days before the election of members of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Councils of Region and Community.
§ 3. These experts control the use and operation of all automated voting and counting systems during the elections.
During the elections of the European Parliament as well as provincial, communal and social assistance councils, the experts appointed last in accordance with § 1^erParagraph 1^er1°, by the House of Representatives and the Senate are responsible for the control referred to in paragraph 1^er this paragraph.
Experts referred to in subparagraphs 1^er and 2 receive equipment from the Ministry of the Interior, as well as all data, information and information useful to exercise control over automated voting and counting systems.
They can, in particular, through the control software available to them by the Ministry of the Interior, verify the reliability of the software of the voting machines, the exact transcription of the vote issued on the magnetic card, the exact transcription by the electronic ballot box of the votes cast as well as their totalisation and optical reading of the votes cast.
They conduct this control on the day before the election and on the same day of the election before the opening of the polling stations and before the start of the counting operations.
§ 4. At the latest, 15 days after the close of the polls, the experts report to the Minister of the Interior and to the federal, regional and community legislative assemblies as well as to the provincial, communal and social councils concerned with their findings. Their report may include recommendations on hardware and software used.
§ 5. Experts are held incommunicado. Any violation of this secret shall be punished in accordance with Article 458 of the Criminal Code. »
CHAPTER II. - Electoral operations
Art. 9. Voting is carried out in accordance with the provisions governing them, with the maintenance of an appropriate paper ballot.
A copy of this Act is filed in the polling stations that are part of a canton where an automated vote counting process is used through an optical reading system. A second copy is available to electors in the waiting room.
Art. 10. The provisions concerning the ballots remain in effect, but the president of the main office who is responsible for the preparation of the ballots, namely the president of the main electoral district office for the election of the House of Representatives, the president of the main office of province for the election of the Senate, the president of the main electoral district office for the election of the Walloon Regional Council and the Flemish Council, the president of the main electoral district office for the election of the Parliament
Voting ballots adapted to the automated voting process by means of an optical reading system are subject to approval by the President of the main office referred to in paragraph 1^er. Each president validates the right to be drawn after making the necessary corrections, if any.
Art. 11. By derogation from Article 95, § 7, of the Electoral Code, Article 3sexies, § 7, of the Act of October 19, 1921 organic of the provincial elections and Article 44 of the communal electoral law, coordinated on August 4, 1932, the King may increase the number of assailants and assailants of the main office.
CHAPTER III. - Automated stripping
of votes using an optical reading system
Art. 12. The Ministry of the Interior has developed the software necessary to automate the counting of votes by means of an optical reading system for the main cantonal offices and the main communal offices.
The official designated by the Minister of the Interior orders the manufacture of memory materials for reading and recording as well as for the counting of votes cast and send them against receipt, under cover, at least eight days before the election, to the chairs of the main offices. On each envelope, the identification data for the corresponding main office can be found. A separate sealed envelope, which is also delivered to the President of the main office against receipt, contains the necessary security elements for the use of memory media.
Art. 13. § 1^er. As the ballot box is received or envelopes containing ballot papers from the various polling stations, the president and members of the main canton office or the main communal office, as the case may be, shall include the ballots they contain, shall draw them out and shall be limited to those clearly invalid as belonging to the following categories:
1° the ballots that do not conform to the model validated by the president of the main office responsible for printing ballots;
2° those whose forms and dimensions have been altered;
3° those who contain inward a paper or any object;
4° those whose author could be made recognizable by a sign, rature or mark not authorized by law.
Suspicious ballots, i.e. those that have been discussed on the grounds that their manifestly null character has been questioned, are similarly set apart but in a category distinct from those referred to in paragraph 1^er.
The number of ballots found in each ballot box or envelope is recorded in the minutes.
§ 2. All ballots other than those which are manifestly null or suspect under § 1^er, are classified by election and grouped by packages from at least two polling stations. After being mixed, the ballots of each package are placed successively in the optical reading system for the reading and recording of the votes expressed therein.
§ 3. When the voting and registration transactions are completed, the ballots rejected by the system, as well as those referred to in § 1^er, paragraph 2, are subject to examination by officers and witnesses.
The Bureau decides whether these ballots should be considered invalid or valid. In the latter case, it determines the list and the candidate(s) receiving the votes cast therein.
The table of results referred to in section 4, 2°, is then completed according to the Bureau's decision.
§ 4. The operations described in § 1^er are carried out successively for each polling station. In the event of simultaneous elections, the operations described in §§ 1^er to 3 are held separately for each election.
Whenever the vote-reading and recording operations are completed for ballots from at least two polling stations, the president places the ballots uncontested in sealed envelopes whose content is described above. It then records the memory media containing the votes expressed in the totalisation system.
Art. 14. When the results of the poll are recorded for all polling stations, the chairman of the main office prints the minutes of these operations and the counting table of which the models are prepared by the Minister of the Interior.
Art. 15. The minutes and the counting table, both duly signed by the president, the other members of the main office and the witnesses, are placed in a cached envelope whose content is described above. The bulletins referred to in Article 13, § 3, are similarly placed in a cached envelope, which indicates the content.
These envelopes, as well as those containing the minutes of the polling stations, are collected in a cached package that the chairman of the main office sends within 24 hours, as the case may be:
1° to the chair of the chief electoral district office for the election of the House of Representatives or to the chair of the provincial principal office for the election of the Senate;
2° to the President of the Chief Electoral Officer for the election of the Walloon Regional Council or the Flemish Council;
3° to the president of the main provincial office for the election of the European Parliament;
4° to the president of the main district office for the election of the provincial council;
5° to the governor of the province for the election of members of the municipal council.
Art. 16. The president of the main canton office or the main municipal office, as the case may be, retains the memory materials used during the election, including those intended for the totalisation of votes, until the day of the validation of the election. He then hand them back against receipt to the Minister of the Interior or to his delegate or send them to him under cover, by registered letter to the post.
The president of the main canton office or the main municipal office, as the case may be, shall send the sealed envelopes containing the uncontested ballots, after approval and signature of the minutes, respectively to the office of the court of first instance or justice of the peace of the judicial canton in which is located the chief town of the electoral district, or to the governor of the province.
The ballot boxes are referred to the local authorities concerned.
The memory media used during the election are erased from the intervention of the Ministry of Interior as soon as the election is definitively validated or cancelled. The official delegated for this purpose by the Minister of the Interior notes in writing that this discharge was carried out.
CHAPTER IV. - Criminal and final provisions
Art. 17. The falsification of memory supports is punishable as false in public scriptures.
Art. 18. Section 200 of the Electoral Code is applicable to the fraudulent alteration of automated counting processes, memory materials and software used in the main offices of the cantons and communes referred to in Article 2.
Art. 19. Articles 204, 205 and 206 of the Electoral Code apply to offences under articles 17 and 18.
Art. 20. In cantons and municipalities where an automated vote counting process is used using an optical reading system, are not applied:
Articles 149 to 152, 154 to 156, 158 to 160, 161, paragraphs 1^er 8, and 162 of the Electoral Code, as well as articles 95 and 131 of the same Code, to the extent that they relate to counting offices;
2° Articles 32, § 1^erParagraph 3, and § 2, and 39, § 1^erparagraph 4, and § 2 of the ordinary law of 16 July 1993 to complete the federal structure of the State;
3° Articles 9quater, 9quinquies, 9sexies, § 1^erParagraphs 1^er to 7, 37ter, paragraph 4, 37quinquies and 37sexies of the Act of October 19, 1921 Organic of Provincial Elections;
4° the provisions of Book I of the aforementioned ordinary law of 16 July 1993, the Act of 23 March 1989 on the election of the European Parliament and the Act of 19 October 1921 organic of the provincial elections, to the extent that they refer to the articles of the Electoral Code referred to in the 1st, or they relate to the counting offices.
Art. 21. For the purposes of this Act, the words "section 162, paragraph 3," in section 163 of the Electoral Code are replaced by the words "section 15 of the Act of 18 December 1998 organizing the automated counting of votes by means of an optical reading system and amending the Act of 11 April 1994 organizing the automated vote".
Art. 22. There is no application to communal electoral colleges where an automated voting process using an optical reading system has been established:
Sections 43 to 50, 52 and 53 of the communal electoral law;
2° the provisions of the above-mentioned law, to the extent that they refer to the articles of the Electoral Code referred to in Article 20, 1°, or they relate to the counting offices.
Promulgate this law, order that it be clothed with the seal of the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels on 18 December 1998.
ALBERT
By the King:
The Minister of the Interior,
L. VAN DEN BOSSCHE
Seal of the state seal:
Minister of Justice,
T. VAN PARYS
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Note
(1) Regular session 1997-1998.
House of Representatives.
Parliamentary documents. - Bill No. 1728/1. - Erratum, no. 1728/2. - Amendments, n^bones 1728/3 and 4.
Regular session 1998-1999.
House of Representatives.
Parliamentary documents. - Report, no. 1728/5. - Text adopted by the Commission, No. 1728/6. - Amendment, No. 1728/7. - Text adopted in plenary and transmitted to the Senate, No. 1728/8.
Annales of the House of Representatives. - Discussion and adoption. Meetings on 21 and 22 October 1998.
Senate.
Parliamentary documents. - Project transmitted by the House of Representatives, No. 1-1125/1. - Report, no. 1-1125/2. - Text adopted by the Commission, No. 1-1125/3. - Text adopted in plenary and subject to Royal Assent, No. 1-1125/4.
Annales of the Senate. - Discussion and adoption. Sessions of 1^er and 3 December 1998.