The most controversial vote in Turkey in years

A relative of mine was an observer of a vote count at an Istanbul ballot box for the April 16 referendum on whether to shift Turkey from a parliamentary system to an executive presidential one. As she later told me, the count resulted in 275 "No" and 84 "Yes" votes. 

One of the ballot box observers was reading the votes and another one was writing it down, according to the rules. The man declared the "No" votes at the ballot box as 175 and my relative managed to catch the mistake before the other man writing the result down. "I think that is 275, not 175," she said. The two men looked at each other, and when she suspected they might try to ignore her comment, she insisted: "Perhaps you misread it, please check again." The man did not even bother to have a second look at the draft paper and just said "OK" with a cursed look at my relative, ultimately registering the vote correctly as 275 on the report sheet.

This is a typical method of possible small-scale cheating in Turkish voting. Such an example would not really be valid in general elections, where you would have to distribute the votes among other parties if you removed them from one party, but in referendums you simply drop a digit from one side and add it to the other, as there are only two options: "Yes" and "No." It is a small-scale irregularity, but if organized centrally it could amount to a considerable effect, because in referendums local constituencies are not important but the nationwide total is important.

On the evening of April 16, many such stories were forwarded to journalists and lawyers in Turkey. But amid the controversy sparked by the statement by the Supreme Election Board (YSK), few people spoke about such examples.

The debate started when the YSK said...