The House Committee for the Investigation of Credentials believes that the House of Representatives and the government should introduce smaller ballot papers more quickly. In five municipalities, including Tynaarlo, this was voted on for the first time this year, before the House of Representatives elections.
“We saw a lot of enthusiasm during the committee’s working visits,” said committee chairman Ulysse Ellian (VVD) in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. According to Elian, counting went much faster because the counters could see much faster which party and candidate had been voted for and because they no longer had to unfold such a huge ballot paper.
In addition to Tynaarlo, experiments with the smaller ballot paper were carried out in four other municipalities in the Netherlands, namely in Alphen aan den Rijn and Midden-Delfland (South Holland), Boekel (North Brabant) and Borne (Overijssel).
Besides making voting easier, it was also more accurate. The Electoral Council announced on Friday that the number of invalid votes with the smaller ballot was lower than in the European elections in 2024. 0.74 percent of the votes in the participating municipalities were invalid, now it is 0.48 percent. The national average of invalid votes was 0.27 percent.
The experimental smaller ballot paper looks different from the well-known regular ballot paper, apart from its size. Instead of on the ballot paper, the list of candidates is now in the box. There you can see per party which candidate has which number. Next, in addition to the party, you also tick the number of the candidate for which you prefer.
“The committee is not discussing it, but we consider it necessary to point out to the House and the government that this large ballot paper is no longer possible,” Ellian emphasizes.