Nearly half of the roughly 497,000 Hungarian voters without a domestic address have already cast their ballots by mail ahead of the parliamentary election, according to data released on Saturday by the National Election Office.
The office said 254,985 mail votes had been submitted so far. Of these, 39,436 were sent directly by post to the authority, while 215,549 were delivered through Hungary’s diplomatic missions abroad.
More than 497,000 eligible voters registered for mail voting by the 18 March deadline. Ballot packages were distributed accordingly, with around 460,000 voters opting for postal delivery and about 36,000 choosing to collect them in person.
Verification of the submitted ballots began earlier in the week. By Saturday morning, authorities had identified 186,025 valid voting documents based on the verification of voter identification statements.
The data show that the largest number of valid ballots came from voters who provided a Romanian mailing address, accounting for 78,221 submissions. This was followed by Serbia with 36,739 valid ballots and Germany with 2,635. Smaller numbers were recorded from the United Kingdom (448) and Switzerland (431).
A total of 775 valid ballots were returned by voters who listed a Hungarian mailing address, while 1,379 came from voters residing in countries that do not permit dual citizenship. In addition, 64,360 valid ballots were submitted by voters who had requested notification of their registration via email.
Authorities emphasized that the statistics track the address provided for notification purposes, not the country from which the ballot was sent.
The verification process involves opening the outer envelope and checking the voter identification statement against the electoral register and, if necessary, official identity databases. Ballots are deemed invalid if key elements are missing or improperly completed, such as an unsigned identification form, an unsealed envelope or multiple inner envelopes.
Minor issues, such as slight damage to the return envelope or small discrepancies in personal data, do not automatically invalidate a ballot if the voter’s identity can still be clearly established.
Ballots that pass verification are set aside unopened and will only be counted after polls close at 19:00 local time on 12 April, in accordance with election procedures.
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