Electoral commissions with irregularities: who served on their boards?
PravdaIn the second half of June, a post appeared on social media suggesting that in all commissions where the votes from the second round of the presidential elections were recounted, the chairpersons or their deputies were – as the author of the post put it – "delegates" of the Civic Coalition. Let's check what the facts are.
In the second half of June, a post appeared on social media suggesting that in all commissions where the recount of votes cast in the second round of the presidential election took place, the chairpersons or their deputies were – as the author of the said post put it – “delegates” of the Civic Coalition. Let's check what the facts are.
“In all commissions where the votes were recounted, the chairpersons or vice-chairpersons were delegates of the Civic Coalition. Please do not gather. You can disperse” – read the post.
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For the purposes of this text, we consider “delegates of the Civic Coalition” to be persons reported by committees who officially supported Rafał Trzaskowski in the second round.
Who can become a member of the election commission?
First, let’s note that a member of the polling station election commission can be any person meeting the statutory conditions, including having active voting rights. Candidates are usually nominated by representatives of electoral committees, but they can also apply independently – through the municipal office to the electoral commissioner. It is the electoral commissioner who makes the final appointment of commission members. Being a member does not necessarily mean representing a specific electoral committee.
The post before the wave of subsequent information
The second important point is that the verified post dates from June 22, 2025. It was probably published in response to a statement by the National Prosecutor’s Office from the previous day, June 21. This statement concerned the detection by the Prosecutor’s Office of potential irregularities in ten polling station commissions, where a recount of votes was ordered. As stated in the communication:
On June 20, 2025, the prosecutor reviewed the case files of case number I NSW 9/25, which included protocols of the recount of ballots in 10 polling station commissions (Kraków, Tarnów, Katowice, Strzelce Opolskie, Mińsk Mazowiecki, Olesno, Grudziądz, Kamienna Góra, Wieniec -Brześć Kujawski, Gdańsk).
In fact, irregularities were found in 9 commissions: in seven of them, votes cast for individual candidates were swapped, in one, invalid votes were mistakenly recorded, and in another, valid votes for Rafał Trzaskowski were incorrectly added to the pool of votes for Karol Nawrocki. Only in the Tarnów commission did the recount confirm the original voting result.
Although today it is known that the scale of irregularities was larger, the author of the post based his statement on the then-current state of knowledge. Therefore, we checked only the managements of those commissions mentioned in the prosecutor’s communication.
Summary and verdict
The table below presents the composition of the managements of ten polling station commissions where the recount was carried out (as of June 21). Under the names of the chairpersons and their deputies, information about the method of appointment is provided – in each case, it was a person nominated by the electoral committee or appointed ex officio by the electoral commissioner.
Information about the composition of election commissions in individual districts is published in the form of decisions by the electoral commissioner responsible for the respective district. Therefore, for each member of the management, the source of the information is indicated.
As can be seen from the above table, the claim that “in all commissions where the votes were recounted, the chairpersons or their deputies were delegates of the Civic Coalition” is false. Out of the ten commissions where the recount was carried out, only in two (in Kamienna Góra and Katowice) were both the chairperson and their deputy persons nominated by committees supporting Rafał Trzaskowski in the second round. In two commissions (Gdańsk and Strzelce Opolskie), representatives of committees supporting the KO candidate held one position each in the management. Meanwhile, in the remaining six commissions, the KO and the current ruling coalition did not have a representative in the position of chairperson or vice-chairperson.