VOTING GUIDE BY IZMIR UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS
Asst. Prof. Dr. Zeynep Arda, Lecturer at Izmir University of Economics (IUE) Department of Visual Communication prepared a “Voting Guide” to guide those first time voters and those who forgot how to vote days before the local elections. Ekrem Demirtaş, President of IUE Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Executive Board of Izmir Chamber of Commerce (ITO), described the guide as ‘civic duty’ and shared it with the members of ITO.
President Demirtaş stated that voting was a civic responsibility and he said, “IUE lecturers transformed knowledge into a commodity. By preventing information pollution, our lecturer guides the citizens in the right direction by allowing them to own their votes through the guide she prepared. As Izmir Chamber of Commerce, we shared this guide with our members.”
Asst. Prof. Dr. Arda, who stated that she prepared the “Voting Guide” to help the students access the accurate information, said, “Information we come across in social media is disconnected and disorganized. There is a great amount of unconfirmed information.”
‘Attention to valid votes!’
Asst. Prof. Dr. Arda indicated that she made an information design by preparing the guide, and that she made use of information in the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) website, respective legislations, and talked to expert volunteers on elections. Arda stated that she made sure the information was easily read and understandable, and she made the following recommendations for voters:
“If you have not received your election identification certificates, make sure to visit www.ysk.gov.tr/ysk/SecmenSorgu.html address to find out where you will be voting. Polling hours for the western part of Turkey is between the hours of 08.00 – 17.00, and for the east is 07.00 – 16.00. Do not forget to take an ID card with you to the polling place. You will have to use blue coloured split ticket for district municipality, yellow coloured for aldermen, and white coloured split ticket for metropolitan municipality and put them in a blue envelope. A purple coloured envelope will be used for ‘Mukhtar’ (refers to the head of a village or mahalle (neighbourhood)) elections. Stained, torn, or marked envelopes will cause spoilt votes.”
Asst. Prof. Dr. Arda also reminded that the ballots should bear YSK watermark and the envelopes should bear the seals of both YSK and council for the ballot box. “Envelopes which do not bear the watermark and the two seals will be counted as invalid. Make sure not to over stamp. You will be voting for the party when you stamp the majority of the ‘Yes’ seal. You are not allowed to stand near the ballot boxes while the polling is in session. You are allowed to monitor the ballot counting process after 17.00 at your ballot place. You may take a picture of the ballot box minutes that will be posted on boards in order to make a comparison when the results are announced, said Asst. Prof. Dr. Arda.
