Eleven municipalities to test smaller ballot in municipal elections next year

At least 11 municipalities will use a smaller ballot paper in the municipal elections in March next year. Five municipalities experimented with the smaller ballot in the parliamentary elections this year, and the Electoral Council is positive about the results, NOS reports.

This year, Alphen aan den Rijn, Boekel, Midden-Delfland, Tynaarlo, and Borne used the smaller ballot. Next year, Den Bosch, Leiden, Meijerijstad, Nijmegen, Noordoostpolder, Soest, and Gouda will also do so. Borne has withdrawn from the experiment.

Borne made the decision partly because it considers the percentage of invalid votes too high. The municipality also did not like that the new ballot had no room to show the candidates’ names, instead having a list of numbers that corresponded with a booklet containing the candidates’ names located in the voting booth.

In Borne, there were 76 invalid votes, or 0.46 percent of the total. In Alphen aan den Rijn, 0.5 percent of the votes were invalid; in Midden-Delfland, 0.47 percent; and in Boekel, 0.63 percent. These are higher percentages than without the smaller ballots, but since the start of the pilot, the number of invalid ballots has decreased. In last year’s European elections, the invalid vote rate in all experimental municipalities was 0.74 percent. This year, it was 0.47 percent.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations told NOS that changes always take some getting used to. “It’s precisely through the pilot that we discover any potential limitation.”

Both the Electoral Council and the Ministry remain enthusiastic about the experiment. “A smaller, more manageable ballot makes the voting and counting process easier in many ways,” a spokesperson for the Electoral Council told the broadcaster. They called it a shame that Borne withdrew. “Their participation is also important because ‘reverting’ to the old ballot paper might be confusing for voters in this municipality.”