Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, is conducting mock voting to create an environment in which elderly people who have difficulty getting around can carry ballot boxes by car and vote in front of their homes.
Tsukuba City will be offering early voting for the mayoral and city council elections scheduled for this fall, allowing elderly people who have difficulty getting to the polling station to carry their ballot boxes in vans and vote in front of their homes. We aim to implement the following.
Prior to this, mock voting had begun this week, and on the 26th, residents who had made reservations in advance via smartphone or telephone cast mock votes in ballot boxes brought to their homes by van.
According to the city, if there is no space to park a van near your home, another vehicle will be used to take you to a van parked a little further away.
A man in his 90s who participated in the mock voting said, ``I have a disability and am using a cane, so it is difficult for me to go to the polling station on my own, so I would definitely like to take advantage of the system once it starts operating.''
Yoshiaki Maejima, head of Tsukuba City's Science and Technology Strategy Division, said, ``We want to offer this option to people living in areas with many elderly people as an option to vote.''
Tsukuba City has been designated as a national special zone, a ``super city,'' where demonstration experiments of cutting-edge technology will be carried out throughout the city, and the city is aiming to eventually implement internet voting.