Article 8. Voter’s address
- The voter’s address shall mean the address of a voter’s residence, place of stay or any other address substituting the address of a voter’s residence that shall serve as grounds for assigning of the voter to the respective election precinct.
- The voter’s address shall be determined based on the registered place of residence or domicile of a voter as determined under the Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Movement and Freedom of Choice of Residence in Ukraine if this article does not specify other.
- Based on substantiated request of the voter, the Register of Voters Maintenance Body may determine other voter’s address than stipulated under the second paragraph of this article.
- The voter’s address of a military serviceman on conscription shall be the address under which the military unit is deployed.
- The voter’s address of a voter serving a criminal sentence in the forms of arrest, imprisonment or restriction of freedom shall be the address of the penitentiary institution.
- The voter’s address of a voter residing or staying abroad shall be the voter’s mailing address in the country of residence or stay.
- The voter’s address shall include the data specified in paragraphs 1-9, 11 (for the voters residing or staying in Ukraine) or the data specified in paragraphs 1, 2, 10 (for the voters residing or staying abroad) of this Part of the Article, as follows:
- A person who received the right to vote, as well as a person who has the right to vote but identified himself/herself as missing on the Register database, shall have the right to apply for inclusion on the Register upon his/her own initiative to the Register Maintenance Body whose jurisdiction covers the territory of Ukraine to which his/her voter address is assigned.
- A person referred to in Part 1 of this Article shall submit to the Register Maintenance Body a written application (the template for which shall be a subject to approval by the Administrator of the Register) containing personal data specified in Article 6, paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Article 7 hereof, and present documents certifying the identity of the person in question and his/her citizenship, – the passport of a Ukrainian citizen or temporary certificate of the citizen of Ukraine (in the case when the person recently acquired Ukrainian citizenship), – with a copy of the that document attached thereto. The information on a voter’s permanent inability shall be specified by the voter himself/herself in the application that shall be submitted together with the document that proves a permanent inability to move. To file an application, a person being on military service on conscription shall be given a leave for the period necessary to file an application to the Register Maintenance Body.
- A person who received the right to vote and at the time when that right was received was residing or staying abroad, shall have the right to file with the diplomatic institution of Ukraine whose jurisdiction covers the territory in which a person resides or stays an application for inclusion on the Register database prepared according to the requirements of Part 2 of the present Article. The application shall be accompanied by the copy of the presented document certifying the identity and citizenship of the voter, namely, the passport for travelling abroad, diplomatic or service passport, or temporary certificate of a Ukrainian citizen (in the case when the person recently acquired Ukrainian citizenship). The head of the Ukrainian diplomatic institution abroad shall without delay forward the application to the Register Maintenance Body at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
- The voter’s address of a person that applied for his/her inclusion on the Register database shall be identified pursuant to the requirements of Parts 2, 4-7 of Article 8 hereof.
- The Register Maintenance Body shall check whether the person who applied for inclusion on the Register have not been already included on the Register and, if necessary, shall check the information specified in the application and needed for making an entry to the Register database through consultation with the bodies and institutions referred to in Article 22 hereof.
- If the conditions specified in Part 2 of Article 17 hereof are met, the head of the Register Maintenance Body shall issue an instruction for making an entry to the Register database. Before issuing such an instruction, the Register Maintenance Body shall have the right to verify the data on a voter with the voter in question directly.
- If the voter was included on the Register database, the Register Maintenance Body shall forward to the postal address of the voter a notification of his/her inclusion, prepared based on a template approved by the Administrator of the Register. The notification shall specify the personal data of the voter referred to in Part 1 of Article 6 and Part 1 of Article 7 hereof, as well as the date of the voter’s inclusion on the Register database. The notification shall be signed by the head of the Register Maintenance Body and stamped by the seal of that body.
- If a voter has already been included on the Register, the notification specified in Part 7 of this Article shall be sent to the address identified by the voter in question as his/her voter’s address.
- The head of the Register Maintenance Body shall turn down the application of a person referred to in Part 1 and Part 3 of this Article if:
- A person who was refused inclusion on the Register database shall be notified thereof in written, providing that the exhaustive list of grounds for non-inclusion is specified. Such a notification shall be sent to the address identified by the voter in question as his/her voter’s address.
- In case of a change of the personal data referred to in the Part 1 of Article 6 or paragraphs 1 and 4 of Part 1 of Article 7 hereof, a voter shall have the right to personally apply to the Register Maintenance Body whose jurisdiction covers the territory to which the voter’s address is assigned with an application for changing his/her personal data on the Register. An application shall be accompanied by the documents (or their copies) proving those changes. If the application is accompanied by copies of the documents, the original documents shall be presented to the Register Maintenance Body. A voter with a permanent inability to move without assistance shall have the right to authorize another person to submit the documents on his/her behalf. A voter living or residing abroad shall file the application to the respective diplomatic institution of Ukraine, which shall without delays forward the application with the documents (or their copies) attached thereto to the Register Maintenance Body at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
- In the case of changing a voter’s address, a voter shall submit the application for changing the voter’s address with the documents (copies of the documents) proving the change of the voter’s address attached thereto to the Register Maintenance Body whose jurisdiction covers the territory to which the new voter’s address is assigned.
- The request to change voter’s address specified in Part 3 of Article 8 of the Law may be filed to the Register Maintenance Body whose jurisdiction covers the territory to which the new voter’s address is assigned, prior to five days following the official start of the election process or referendum process carried out on the territory within which the voter asks to define his new voter’s address. If the respective territory simultaneously holds several elections (referendum), such a request may be filed prior to five days following the official start of the election (referendum) process of elections (referendum), held before the voting day in other elections taking place simultaneously.
- If the voter applies for changing the voter’s address in the Register database based on Part 3 of Article 8 of this Law, the voter shall attach a copy of the document confirming one’s actual residence address to the application referred to in Part 2 of this Article.
- The documents confirming the actual residence of the voter at the address specified in the declaration referred to in Part 2 of this Article, and properly justifying changing the voter’s address on the grounds provided by Part 3 of Article 8 of the Law include:
- The procedure of considering the voter’s appeal under Part 3 of Article 8 of this law is established by the Central Election Commission.
- The Register Maintenance Body shall be entitled to check the change in the voter’s personal data specified in the application by consulting the bodies and institutions referred to in Article 22 hereof. If the grounds listed in Part 3 of Article 17 of this Law are in place, the head of the Register Maintenance Body shall issue an instruction for introducing the respective changes to the voter’s personal data in the Register database, except for the case specified in Part 8 of this Article.
- . If a voter applies for changing the voter’s address in the Register database, the Register Maintenance Body shall check whether the application is substantiated. Based on results of such a check, the head of the Register Maintenance Body shall be entitled to adopt one of the following decisions:
- In the case of changing the personal data on the Register database, the Register Maintenance Body that made such a change shall notify the voter on the made change in writing.
- The head of the Register Maintenance Body shall turn down the voter’s application referred to in Parts 1 or 2 of this Article based on the following grounds:
- The person who applied with an application referred to in Part 1 or Part 2 of this Article, shall be notified in written on turning the application down, providing that the exhaustive list of grounds for turning down the application is specified in notification. Such a notification shall be sent to the voter’s address of the voter in question. In the case of refusal to change the voter’s address, such a notification shall be sent to the voter’s address specified in the Register database and to the address which the voter in question asked to recognize as his/her new voter’s address.
- If it has been identified that the person who submitted the application specified in Part 1 or Part 2 of this Article was not included on the Register database, the Register Maintenance Body shall check the data specified in the application by requesting confirmation from the bodies and institutions listed in Article 22 of this Law. A decision to include the voter on the Register database shall be made pursuant to the requirements of Part 6 and Part 7 of Article 19 hereof. Before making such a decision, the Register Maintenance Body shall be entitled to apply to the voter in question with a request for updating the data on such a voter.
- 13. The voter whose address was determined according to Article 8 of the Law may apply to the Register Maintenance Body with a new request to change voter’s address on the grounds provided by Part 3 of Article 8 hereof, no earlier than 180 days after the last voter’s address change was entered into Register.
- If the date of the appeal to the Register Maintenance Body referred to in paragraph 13 of this Article, the electoral process for the election of the President of Ukraine, parliamentary elections or local elections, national or local referendum process has commenced, voter’s address can not be changed before the end of the relevant election or referendum process. If the timing of electoral processes (referendum process) completely or partially overlap, the voter may file a request to change the voter’s address after completion of the electoral process, the voting day in which happens to be the last.
- If the request of the voter referred to in Article 8 of the Law was submitted to to the Register Maintenance Body prior to the reasons for changing the current voter’s address in accordance with the information provided for in Article 22 of this Law, voter’s address is determined in accordance with procedure established by Article 22 of this Law.
- A document confirming the voter’s identity and Ukrainian citizenship at the local elections:
- A citizen’s belonging to the respective territorial community and his/her residence in the respective territory is determined based on his/her voter’s address (unless other is specified by the Law).
- Internally displaced person shall enjoy his/her voting right at the elections of the President of Ukraine, members of Parliament of Ukraine, local elections and referenda in the manner prescribed by law
- This Law shall be effective from the day following the day of its publication, and will come into force three months after it become effective.
- The Central Election Commission shall:
- in the following month from the date of enactment of this Law – ensure the adoption of the acts under the Law;
- in the following month from the date of enactment of this Law – bring its acts into conformity with this Law;
- in the following three months from the date of enactment of this Law – ensure the functioning of the State Voter Register in accordance with this Law.