Charges brought against nine members of electoral commission in Ostrów Mazowiecka for miscounting votes
The District Prosecutor's Office in Białystok has charged nine people from an electoral commission in Ostrów Mazowiecka with incorrectly recounting votes in the second round of the presidential election. Trzaskowski's result was inflated by 101 votes and Nawrocki's was reduced by 100 votes.
Charges against electoral commission in Ostrów Mazowiecka — 101 votes incorrectly attributed
The District Prosecutor's Office in Białystok has brought charges against nine members of a district electoral commission operating at primary school number 2 in Ostrów Mazowiecka — according to a statement from the prosecutor's office announced on Thursday, 24 September, as cited by wiadomosci.gazeta.pl.
The charges concern failure to perform duties whilst determining voting results in the district on 1 June 2025, the day of the second round of the presidential election. The prosecutor's office indicates that commission members unintentionally and incorrectly recounted ballot cards removed from the ballot box, which led to incorrect determination of the number of valid votes, invalid votes, and votes cast for individual candidates.
How the error occurred
In the batch of ballot cards attributed to Rafał Trzaskowski, 101 cards were found containing votes actually cast for Karol Nawrocki, along with one invalid card. In Nawrocki's ballot package there was one card supporting Trzaskowski. As a result, Nawrocki's result was reduced by 100 votes and Trzaskowski's result was inflated by 101.
The prosecutor's office determined that significant harm was caused to the public interest. "The situation that arose concerned significant circumstances and created negative consequences for voters, infringing the principle of reliable conduct of the election and also undermining guarantees of the reliability of presidential election results," the prosecutor's office stated. The accused face up to two years' imprisonment. During the investigation, almost all of them refused to provide explanations or answer questions.
Not only Ostrów Mazowiecka
The commission in Ostrów Mazowiecka is not the only case of miscounted votes during this year's presidential election. In early October, nine members of an electoral commission in Otwock faced charges — also for incorrectly attributing votes to candidates. Similar irregularities occurred in District Electoral Commission number 4 in Wieniec in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeship, where a candidate supported by PiS was credited with votes belonging to a Civic Coalition politician — instead of 331 votes he received 466.
The spokesperson for the National Prosecutor's Office, Przemysław Nowak, stated that as part of broader verification, a total of 250 electoral commissions throughout the country were checked. The prosecutor's office is currently conducting over a dozen proceedings concerning irregularities in vote counting. The most frequent failures involved attributing votes from one candidate to another and discrepancies between protocols and actual voting results.
Context: the election and its confirmation
The presidential election took place on 18 May and 1 June 2025. Karol Nawrocki won. After voting ended, protests were filed concerning irregularities in various commissions throughout the country. The Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs of the Supreme Court upheld two complaints — covering a total of 12 commissions — as justified, but this had no effect on the final result. Some Civic Coalition politicians, including Roman Giertych, demanded a recount of all votes, but this did not take place. On 1 July the Supreme Court confirmed the validity of the presidential election.
Source: Google News PL