Organization of General Elections during a Pandemic. A Comparative Analysis of Poland and the Czech Republic

Abstract

The aim of this paper is a comparative analysis of the new methods used to organise the 2020 general elections in Poland and the Czech Republic, which were held in the state of the SARS-19 virus pandemic. This paper analyses the voting methods introduced in connection with sanitary regulations in both countries and the scale of votes cast in this way in relation to the total. It discusses and compares the requirements introduced that voters and electoral commission members had to meet on voting day to minimise the risk of infection with the virus. The text shows a number of similarities in both countries in terms of the measures applied to prevent the spread of the virus associated with a personal visit to a polling station. An additional aspect of the comparative analysis of the covid-voting methods in the two countries was a discussion of voting rules for those infected or in quarantine on voting day. Analysis of the data showed that in both countries the alternative voting method, was not very popular.

Keywords

• elections
• electoral law
• covid-19
• voting