No new ballot this fall as Sweden keeps hundreds of millions of ballots

The Swedish Election Authority has proposed changing the ballot design to a common version where all parties are represented. But no changes will be made in time for the autumn elections, reports Sveriges Radio's Ekot.

The reason for the proposed change is to avoid handling such large quantities of ballots. Before the last election, the authority had 710 million ballots printed, of which 25 million were used.

It creates problems in production and distribution, but most of all for voters at polling stations, because there are many ballot papers to choose from. It takes time, and that in itself creates queues, Anna Nyqvist, head of the secretariat at the Election Authority, told Ekot.