Solutions and Challenges for Online Meetings of Electoral Bodies

Abstract

In the spring of 2020, the pandemic caused by the coronavirus had an impact on all aspects of life. The need to reduce personal contact has also posed a huge challenge to the functioning of the constitutional bodies that perform their functions as corporate bodies. For example, the various parliaments, or even the Plenary Session of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, have had to adapt to the challenges of the online space. The operation of electoral bodies, and in particular electoral commissions (as corporate bodies), is no exception to this problem. An electoral body is of particular importance in a democratic state, especially if it has a remedial function. There is therefore no way around the need to guarantee their functioning at a time when, due to reduced contacts, personal presence is not possible or difficult to ensure. At the same time, it is also important, irrespective
of the pandemic, to guarantee the possibility of meeting online in the normal course of business in the 21st century, as this would also serve to maintain the short deadlines for electoral remedies. It is therefore important to regulate and establish the possibility of online meetings, and such a procedure must be backed up by appropriate constitutional guarantees. In our study, we will therefore review the procedure for holding meetings in various (mainly European) countries, in particular with regard to the issue of publicity, and the way in which they are held (e.g. the extent to which they can operate online and the procedural framework within which they do so), as well as their normative rules. In addition, the practice and procedural methodology of Hungarian electoral bodies, in particular the National Electoral Committee, will be examined in more detail.