Vote counters who made false declarations on the Vitézy appeal form were reported

Through the Kimittud public data requester portal, our reader obtained the submission of mayor candidate Dávid Vitézy regarding the recount of invalid votes, and through data analysis found out that at least 128 of the 226 vote counting committee member statements included in it contain false factual statements, because erroneously invalidated ballots were not found in these voting districts during the recounts. Átlátszó also found out that the vote counters who gave false statements could have been governing party Fidesz delegates. Our reader has now filed a complaint with the police in the case with the assistance of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU).

“Both the elected and mandated vote counting committee members were classified as official persons at the time of making the statements, so it is necessary to examine their conduct in this regard by taking into account the provisions of the Civil Code governing official persons,” states the report obtained by Átlástzó. “On the basis of the available information, it is suspected that officials misused this capacity and cooperated in making untrue statements of fact to enable the conduct of a legal remedy procedure undermining public confidence in electoral remedies.”

As Átlátszó reported in a series of articles after the municipal elections in June, the Budapest vote counters declared on standardized forms for the appeal of mayor-candidate Dávid Vitézy that invalid votes were counted incorrectly in their voting district: votes for Vitézy were lost where the voters also voted for Alexandra Szentkirályi.

More than half of these statements turned out to be untrue during the recount, no erroneously invalidated votes were found in the respective voting districts. We randomly called some counting commissioners who gave false statements: the conversations revealed that they were contacted by Fidesz representatives with the statement , or they signed the paper at the local Fidesz office – we spoke to people who signed without reading it, or who did not remember signing something like that.

Our reader has now filed a complaint with the Budapest Police Headquarters against unknown perpetrators, partly referring to the anonimized declarations of the members of the vote counting committee handed out by the National Elections Office and their analysis, partly referring to the investigative story done by Átlátszó. According to his argument, “both the elected and appointed members of the vote counting committee were classified as official persons when they made the statements, so it is necessary to examine their conduct in this regard by taking into account the provisions of the Civil Code governing official persons”.

“On the basis of the available information, it can be suspected” – the complaint states – “that official persons, abusing their position, cooperated in making untrue statements of fact to enable the conduct of a legal remedy procedure, thus putting a candidate in an advantageous position and as collateral social damage undermining public trust in electoral remedies”.

According to the complaint, the motivation of the vote counting committee members who made the false statement, the reasoning process and circumstances leading to their statement must be examined individually in each case, “especially with regard to what the declarants previously told to the Atlatszo investigative portal”. The whistleblower would like the police to listen to the concerned declarants and examine “whether the statements were made in good faith, as a result of a voluntary and informed decision, or on the contrary: specifically in bad faith, i.e. despite the better conviction of the concerned, knowingly reporting untrue facts”.

According to the complainant, it is also important who and through which channel the given vote counting committee member was approached with the possibility of filling in and signing the declaration form, and also what content this inquiry was made of, what request the requester made to the vote counting committee member .

“Also, it is a question to be examined as to whether anyone put pressure on the stakeholders who made the statement, promised them an advantage, used coercion or threats against them, given that this suggests the existence of inciting behavior,” the complaint states.

The complaint highlights that, since according to the law the ballots must be destroyed on the working day after the ninetieth day after the vote, the police authority should seize them before the deadline of September 9, “because the analysis of the ballots supports the untrue statements revealed as a result of the data request, and also enables the discovery of possible further untrue statements of fact”.

In preparing the report, our reader was assisted by the legal advocacy organization Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU). Dániel Döbrentey, head of HCLU’s political freedom program, said about why they agreed to provide legal assistance:

“The integrity of the elections and the public trust in the electoral bodies are undermined if a legal remedy procedure can be started with false statements and false evidence. The investigation that starts after the complaint is the only way to see clearly in the matter: it may be revealed what motivated the members of the vote counting committee who made false statements to do so. That’s why we complied with the request and helped draft the report, because there must be consequences for the fact that those who swore to protect the integrity of the elections and uphold the law make untrue statements.”

Written and translated by Tamás Bodoky, the Hungarian version is available here.