Czech Senate approves postal voting for Czechs abroad
The Czech Senate has approved a bill allowing Czechs living abroad to vote by mail. The legislation should come into force in time for the 2025 general elections.
The law has been in the making for two decades but faced fierce resistance in the lower house. The opposition ANO party initially supported the plan to let Czechs living abroad vote by post and even included it in its government manifesto in 2018 but then made a U-turn. The former speaker of the House of Deputies for ANO, Radek Vondráček, explained why based on his experience as an observer at the United States presidential elections in 2020:
“Postal voting in the United States has been filling the media. I was invited by the U.S. government to observe how the system works, and I have to say that I was truly consternated. It is full of flaws, and we Czechs would never accept it. We have very solid legislation concerning voting and election supervision. Their system relies on a visual check of signatures, and at times, it resembles a poll rather than an election. I don’t think it would be acceptable for us Czechs. I suppose there are ways to organize postal voting in such a way that a secret ballot would still be possible, while ensuring more robust supervision and a direct connection between the voter and the election committee. However, I think it would be more like stepping aside without making real progress.”
Interior Minister Vít Rakušan expressed confidence that the law would withstand any possible legal challenge:
“A number of countries that implement postal voting are based on the same principle of suffrage as the Czech Republic. Therefore, I do not fear that the proposed amendment would deviate from constitutional boundaries, nor that it would fail a constitutionality test in the event of a challenge.”
The law, which still needs to be signed by the president, is seen as a way to make voting more accessible for Czechs living in remote areas, where traveling to a diplomatic mission to vote can be costly and time-consuming. It requires citizens who wish to vote by mail to register with the relevant diplomatic mission and request the necessary voting materials. The process involves printing the ballot, signing an identification slip, and mailing the ballot back to the diplomatic mission, where it will be counted.
Votes from abroad will be counted in four major electoral regions to minimize their impact on seat distribution. Currently, Czechs can vote at 110 diplomatic missions worldwide. About 600,000 Czech citizens live abroad, and the new law is expected to increase voter participation among them.
