Court conditionally discontinues proceedings for Kobyłka election committee after vote-counting error

Prosecutors established that an election committee in Kobyłka mistakenly attributed 110 votes cast for Rafał Trzaskowski to Karol Nawrocki during the second round of the presidential election.

Prosecutor findings on the Kobyłka committee

The prosecutor’s office established that members of an election committee in Kobyłka in the Masovian Voivodeship failed to follow the National Electoral Commission’s guidelines regarding how to count ballots. As a result, they unintentionally tallied the votes incorrectly.

Calculations by the committee members showed that during the second round of the presidential election, Karol Nawrocki received 507 valid votes and Rafał Trzaskowski received 371 votes. Consequently, as actions carried out by the prosecutor revealed, they mistakenly attributed 110 valid votes cast for Trzaskowski to Nawrocki.

Court conditionally discontinues proceedings

All nine committee members were charged with unintentional failure to fulfill their duties resulting from a lack of caution. All pleaded guilty and submitted requests for the conditional discontinuation of proceedings, a measure the prosecutor also requested from the court.

Ultimately, in a ruling issued at the end of July, the District Court in Kobyłka conditionally discontinued the criminal proceedings for a one-year probation period and refrained from imposing a penalty. At the same time, in accordance with the prosecutor’s request, the court ordered eight individuals to pay money to the Fund for Aid to Victims and Post-Penitentiary Assistance.

Presidential election and nationwide voting irregularities

The first round of the presidential election was held on May 18 of last year, and the second on June 1. According to official results announced by the National Electoral Commission, Karol Nawrocki, backed by PiS, received 50.89 percent of the votes (10,606,877), while KO candidate Rafał Trzaskowski received 49.11 percent (10,237,286). The difference between the candidates was nearly 370,000 votes.

Shortly afterward, reports began to emerge about irregularities in vote counting at certain polling stations during the second round. The National Prosecutor’s Office reported last year that inspections of ballot papers from 250 precinct committees across Poland were conducted, revealing no discrepancies in 166 of them, while discrepancies were noted in 84 cases. For instance, in sixteen committees, votes cast for Rafał Trzaskowski were wrongly assigned to Karol Nawrocki or vice versa.

National Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Przemysław Nowak reported at the end of July last year on a total of 17 investigations. For example, in June of this year, a court in a non-final ruling sentenced the chairman and deputy chairman of a committee in Wieńcu to fines totaling 1,500 and 1,800 PLN each after a mix-up of results. For the remaining members, the court decided to conditionally discontinue proceedings for a three-year probation period and ordered them to pay 1,500 PLN each to the Fund for Aid to Victims and Post-Penitentiary Assistance.