DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE

More student questions

Question: Hello, my name is Chanon Richardson. I am a student at Watchcare Academy in Denver. I would like to ask you a few questions about the elections taking place in Ukraine. My questions are:

1. What are the rules in the Electoins?
2. How old do you have to be to vote?

Sincerely,
Chanon Richardson
2nd Grade

Answer: Thanks Chanon: Ukraine has a complex set of election rules. I received a copy of them today and we had some lawyers explain the key provisions in the law. A copy of the Election Law is about the size of a small textbook.

Your second question, for example, is answered by Article 2 paragraph 1 of "Law of Ukraine —On the Elections of People's Deputies of Ukraine."

It reads as follows: "The election of deputies are universal. Citizens of Ukraine who reached the age of eighteen by the day of election are granted suffrage rights in the elections of deputies."

So there you have it, Chanon. You must be 18 to vote in Ukraine — just like in the U.S.

Thanks for asking!

Question: Hello my name is Miesha Hildreth. I am a student at Watchcare Academy in Denver. I would like to ask you a few question about the elections taking place in Ukraine. My questions are:

1. How old do you have to be to work in the capital building?
2. How do you count the votes at the completion of the elections?

Sincerely,
Miesha Hildreth
5th Grade

Answer: Hello Miesha, I've been in Ukraine's Capitol Building a few times on previous visits here. I won't be going there on this trip, however. When I was there before, I noticed people of all different ages working there. Most appeared to be adults.

I saw a few people that looked to be of college age, possibly high-school age. The younger people seemed to be aids or assistants to the politicians and the adult staff.

At the U.S. Capitol, you can be a page during your junior year of high school. These students actually move to Washington, D.C., during the school year, go to school in Washington and for their jobs they usually run errands, file papers and provide general assistance on the floors of the House and Senate.

If you think you might one day be interested in doing this, just let me know and I'll help you apply.

Regarding counting votes in Ukraine, here's how it works: Ukrainians will be voting at 33,000 different locations across Ukraine. The polls close at 10 p.m. on Sunday night.

After the voting is over, the people who run the polling stations will open the ballot boxes, turn the boxes upside down dumping all the ballots on a table. Then the people will sort the ballots, then count them and record the vote totals.

Then they package up the ballots in a very specific way and send the ballots and the official vote count from the polling station to a central election commission. It takes a day to get a preliminary vote count, but it takes a few days more to get an official vote count which is certified by the Ukrainian government.

All of these procedures are spelled out in Ukraine's election law.

Thanks for asking.

Former U.S. Congressman Bob Schaffer, a member of the Colorado State Board of Education, is an election observer for the Parliamentary elections in Ukraine. The election is coming up this Sunday, March 26.