The organization behind the Swedish election

"Valår"

Beside the Swedish government, Sweden is divided in 21 regions and 290 municipalities. There is one election each 4th year where the swedes must vote for a political party to the government, the region and the municipality. Hence the political parties have politicians at national level for the government, regional level, and local municipal level. The elections for all three levels are at the same day. After the elections results are finally decided by the county administration boards, the political parties internally decide who to take the numerous positions in the complex hierarchy named democracy.

If ballot papers submitted by the electorate have not been kept securely, they shall be declared invalid if it can be assumed that there has been any unauthorised use of them.

Each of those 3 democratic levels of entities have a political organization and a staff of employees. Due to the Swedish law none of those have any personal responsibility, while there are no law regulating for example corruption. Due to the law any representative for the democracy is above any doubt. That’s a reason why Sweden scores so high in the Transparency International surveys.

A lot of municipalities in Sweden, if not most, has been ruled by the Social democratic party uninterruptedly for the last 90 years.

The elections are organized by the political organizations in the municipalities. The procedure is the following. The municipality board nominate an election committee. In addition, the municipality board assign the chairman and his deputy in the election committee. There are no requirements by law for those nominees, but we can presuppose that it will be someone from the political party with majority for the moment. Someone outside the party would not have the legal immunity.

Ballot papers intended to be placed at polling stations under Chapter 8. Paragraph 2(2) and (3) are provided only for those parties that so request. The request shall be made no later than the date set by the Central Electoral Authority in respect of the party referred to in Chapter 8. Section 2, first paragraph 2(b) of the County Administrative Board and otherwise with the Central Election Authority.

The election board nominates election workers, who must be educated by the county administration board before the election. The county administration boards are the only authorities where the head is officially nominated by the government (Landshövding).

The election procedure is as follows:

The voter gets a permission to vote by mail before the election. The voter can either vote by mail or show up at the voting facility in the district where he is registered the voting day. The ballot papers for the different parties are available to pick up in the voting facility.

There are never mentioned any control from a third part not member in the party ruling the municipality. The law mention that the calculation of votes is public, with no further explanations. However, the law is outermost detailed in describing how the voter shall put the ballot in to the envelope.

The ballots are printed and distributed by the central election authority. The parties must follow the strict formalities required by the election authority to get their ballots printed and distributed to the election facilities.

As an example from the Swedish election law 2005:837 Chapter 6 §7 translated by google “Ballot papers intended to be placed at polling stations under Chapter 8. Paragraph 2(2) and (3) are provided only for those parties that so request. The request shall be made no later than the date set by the Central Electoral Authority in respect of the party referred to in Chapter 8. Section 2, first paragraph 2(b) of the County Administrative Board and otherwise with the Central Election Authority. Try to understand that!

There are shields for the voter to hide when to put the anonymous ballot paper in the anonymous envelopes, one for each municipality, the region and for the government.

The election worker checks the voter manually on the voting list when the 3 anonymous envelopes are put in the respective ballot box.

When the election facility is closed the anonymous envelopes and the anonymous ballots are counted.

The Swedish democracy is carried up by formalities, like all other aspects of the society built by the social democrats during almost 100 years. The Swedish election law of 2005 is 15 chapters and 201 paragraphs. In addition, the law has been changed 12 times since 2005, with references to amendments.

Now we see the most astonishing writing in the law regarding invalid votes. LAG 2005:837 chapter 13 §6 translated by google “If ballot papers submitted by the electorate have not been kept securely, they shall be declared invalid if it can be assumed that there has been any unauthorised use of them.”

This is such a fantastic opening for the people handpicked by the party which has the majority of the seats in the municipality board to make an assumption in the name of democracy. When all envelopes are opened, and the ballots are sorted in different bunches they start the counting.

If we suppose that they count their own ballots first together with their allied parties, they can’t keep an eye on the other bunches, while counting. It is easy to assume that there has been any unauthorized activity with the bunches that are left. Specially since there are no requirement in the law that there shall be any precautions taken to secure the counting of votes.

If there had been people available who are not member of the party and involved in the counting, they might ask them to keep an eye on the other bunches while counting their own votes.

Anyhow there are a legal opportunity to consider votes as invalid according to an assumption made. But since there is an axiom in the Swedish law that all representants for the official authorities and the political system are above any doubt, we must keep our blind faith!

Another curiosity in the Swedish election law 2005:837 chapter 13 § 7 is that if a sign is made with intention to recognize the ballot the ballot shall be considered invalid. We must ask ourselves the purpose of this part of the law.

When the ballots are counted locally, they shall be transported to the election board in the respective municipality to be counted again. Here is the new screening if the ballots are invalid or not according to the criteria mentioned above. After that the ballots shall be transported to the county administration board for the final count, where the screening for invalid ballots takes place again.

You shall be aware of that the number after the year in the name of the law is how many changes of laws that have been carried out that year. For example, the election law 2005:837, there have been at least 837 law changes or new laws that year. The highest number I found for 2005 is 1248.

The Swedish democracy is carried up by formalities, like all other aspects of the society built by the social democrats during almost 100 years. The Swedish election law of 2005 is 15 chapters and 201 paragraphs. In addition, the law has been changed 12 times since 2005, with references to amendments. The 6th chapter of the law 2005:837 is a deep loading formalization of the envelopes used for voting.

There are never mentioned any control from a third part not member in the party ruling the municipality. The law mention that the calculation of votes is public, with no further explanations. However, the law is outermost detailed in describing how the voter shall put the ballot in to the envelope. (2005:837 chapter 7 § 2)

Ambulant vote registrars is a speciality in the law 2005:837 chapter 7 §3a. The party who has the majority in the municipality, mainly the social democrats is allowed to send their people to the homes for elderly, make home visits to disabled people. They have the registers from the municipality social assistance departments. A major activity in the social democratic election campaign is to pick up the ballots from all swedes suffering from senile dementia, living in care centres or at hospitals. They are so kind to the poor immobilized people!

The Swedish democracy as well as the Swedish law is built on formalities. The crux is to make the amount of text to voluminous and complicated, that no one can grasp the actual meaning. The interpretative prerogative by some people designated by the one and only party trough titles and positions is an important method to keep the power for decades.

You shall be aware of that the number after the year in the name of the law is how many changes of laws that have been carried out that year. For example, the election law 2005:837, there have been at least 837 law changes or new laws that year. The highest number I found for 2005 is 1248.

We shall keep in mind that 2005 was the year before the election 2006, where the social democratic party handed over the power to the opposition in front of the banc crisis. There can’t be any possibility for the opposition to keep track on all those law changes, and the consequences thereof.

The government secretariat is mainly built up by the social democratic party. The employees are protected by the law and can’t be replaced if there are a new temporary government. To change the massive system of laws and regulation will take decades since it has been implemented during almost a century of social democratic governance.

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