Observing elections in Norway is like talking to a dog – interesting, but monotonous and predictable soon enough.
Electoral system in Norway – is a modification of open regional lists with a partial compensatory distribution of seats. Parties nominate their candidates in every electoral district, and some of them receive mandates depending on their number in the party list, number of voters received by the party, and total number of seats available in the region.
It may seem difficult, but in practice, if there are 16 seats in the region, their distribution among parties is determined by the number of votes received during the election. Voters have the right to change the order of candidates in the list, but, according to Norwegians, more than half of voters should rearrange candidates in the list in the same way in order to make such change legitimate. In such a way, 150 of 169 parliamentary mandates are being distributed. The rest are compensatory, and are distributed among parties according to the Sainte Laguë modified method.
Ballot paper Place for a stamp. This is how ballot paper shall be folded before put into the ballot box.
Ballot paper for people who want to vote during early elections to Norwegian Parliament outside the electoral district where they are registered. Vote only for a party.
Parties are proportionally financed from the state budget in accordance to the number of mandates.
Organization of the elections radically differs from those used in post-Soviet countries. Norwegian Election Code has only 30 pages; a lot of issues are not regulated by the legislation and governed by local governments directly; the number of printed ballot papers exceeds the number of voters in times, and part of them is given to political parties for distribution among supporters (voters throw ballots of the certain parties into ballot boxes), even during the Election Day in front of polling stations; most members of precinct commissions are hired, and local governments act as district commissions.
Besides that, local governments are also responsible for election commissions, early voting, electronic voter lists on polling stations during the Election Day, and on-line voting.
Tables with materials for every election commission (stamps, keys, computers, etc.).
If to compare the prevalence of campaigning advertising in Ukraine, on which tons of natural resources are spent, and campaigning tents standing only in specially allocated places in Norway, the latter is far more considerate to my mind. Some of campaigning stands of political parties:
Election Day
Till 2009, showing one's identification documents wasn't mandatory.
Despite polling stations are to be open from 9am to 9pm, their closing hours may vary, what is jurisdiction of local governments.
An interesting fact: till 2009, showing one's identification documents wasn't mandatory. Today, a regulation exists, according to which voters may not show documents if they are acquaintances of a commission member.
In polling station, voters go straightly to the booth and take the necessary ballot. Then, they take places in a line to the ballot box. Two members of the commission with a stamp and computer (electronic voter register) are sitting near the ballot box and checking whether voters are present in voter lists. If everything is fine, they stamp a folded ballot paper and allow to put it into the ballot box. Ballot becomes a document only with a stamp of the election commission.
Picture of a polling station.
The country is very tolerant to the voters and helps everyone to vote.
There were incidents when campaigners of a party were disseminating its ballot papers near the polling station. Such actions do not violate electoral regulations. The country is very tolerant to the voters and helps to vote everyone. It concerns not only disabled persons, but also those who want to vote outside the polling station. One of such incidents occurred in Bergen. A voter asked if he could vote in his car. Commission members have checked if he is included in the voter list, and brought ballot papers, ballot box, the stamp, and covered his car with a sheet. Then, the voter had put folded ballot paper into the ballot box himself.
If a voter wasn't found in the voter list or he doesn't have any documents, commission members put his ballot paper in a special envelope and send to the local governments, which have access to "secret voter list" of people who entered witness protection programs or are working undercover.
Such possibilities and possibility of early voting, which starts in a month before the elections, result in 80% turnout.
Vote count and electoral night
Closing the polling station, counting 3000 of votes, proper packing, and sending documents to local governments take 75 minutes. Of course, there was a divergence of 3 ballot papers, by the commission decided to allow local government which organized the election to take care of this issue. Commission members didn't worry about that because their results are only preliminary, and ballots will be officially recounted. Local governments, which have on-live voter register, divide ballot papers and process them with scanners, 10,000 ballots per hour by each.
Scanner that counts votes.
If the scanner cannot determine voting results, the scanned ballot paper goes to the people who help machine to recognize the vote.
Local governments and the Norwegian Ministry of Regional Development, which is responsible for the conduction of elections, provide preliminary voting results to the media, which broadcast interactive programs all night long, visualizing lost and gained seats, possible coalitions, and regional representation in the Parliament. At the same time, supporters of parties gather in pubs to celebrate or see off their parties.