Special Report – Irregular Polling Stations Inquiry

The combination of very high voter turnout and such vast support for one block is considered highly irregular and thus all 130 polling stations were marked as part of the inquiry with an Irregularity Indicator of 3. [...] Due to the assessment that irregularities in one polling station might indicate irregularities in other nearby polling stations, all of the 130 abovementioned polling stations that were located in one of these two cities were given an Irregularity Indicator of 2. [...] Out of the larger polling stations, those in which one of the four blocks’ voter share rose by more than 150% in comparison to both the 2015 and 2013 elections were marked irregular and given an Irregularity Indicator of 3. [...] Based on this observation and the specific patterns seen during previous analyses, a total of 95 polling stations were found in which voter support for one of the blocks was over 300% higher than the average support for the block in other polling stations in the same area or from areas with the same demographic characteristics. [...] Lastly, while the essence of democratic elections is the ability to shift votes from one block to another, high rates of change in polling stations between two consecutive elections is rare, especially due to the similar vote share for each of the two main blocks in 2015 and 2019.